North Dakota oil patch posts record production

North Dakota’s oil patch will set a production record in 2009, despite a year that began with depressed crude prices and a drop in drilling activity, state and industry officials said.

North Dakota will produce about 80 million barrels of oil in 2009, up from a record 62.8 million barrels last year, said Lynn Helms, director of the state Department of Mineral Resources. Final production numbers won’t be known until sometime in the first quarter of 2010.

“We are rocking along,” Helms said. “It’s a much better year than we expected earlier in the year. It adds up fast when you’re pumping out more than 240,000 barrels a day.”

North Dakota has risen from being the ninth-largest oil-producing state in 2006 to No. 4 this year. But a year ago, industry officials believed that the production pinnacle had been reached in the state’s oil patch. Rigs were being idled due to a harsh winter combined with slipping crude prices and a slumping U.S. economy.

SF Chronicle