Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on March 19, 2013
Wow, North Dakota, That’s a Lot of Oil
It’s no secret that North Dakota has been in the middle of an oil boom since about 2008, but a new chart from the North Dakota Industrial Commission, Department of Mineral Resources, shows just how steep the increase has been.
As of 2006, the state was only producing about 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day, putting it on par with other mid-tier oil producing states like Kansas, Colorado and Montana. But new hydraulic fracturing techniques and the opening of the massive Bakken formation to drilling changed all that, and as of January 2013 the state was producing an average of 770,000 barrels of crude per day, for a total of 23,834,000 barrels per month. That’s double the amount the state was producing just two years ago.
It is a lot of oil, to be sure, but even with this recent explosion in production North Dakota is in just third place nationally. Texas produces a staggering 2,220,000 barrels per day, and the rigs that operate in the U.S. Federal Offshore region account for another 1,389,000 barrels per day. North Dakota currently accounts for about 10% of all U.S. crude production.
What do you think? About 75% of North Dakota’s crude oil is transported out of the state via truck and railroad, limiting the amount that the state can extract at any given time due to weather and capacity constraints. Is more pipeline capacity the answer?
7 Comments on "Wow, North Dakota, That’s a Lot of Oil"
SilentRunning on Tue, 19th Mar 2013 10:31 pm
North Dakota output will soon peak, and then production will begin to decline.
Enormous numbers of wells had to be drilled to produce N. Dakota oil, and those wells deplete at an astonishing rate. Even more wells, in lower quality sites, will be needed to replace them. The costs (economic AND ecological) will be vast – at some point it within 10 years or so, it will no longer be profitable to keep the fracking ponzi scheme going.
rollin on Wed, 20th Mar 2013 1:24 am
I think that pipeline investors should run away from the Bakken field production. Not enough lifetime in that field.
BillT on Wed, 20th Mar 2013 2:01 am
When the last drop is produced in a few years, all N.Dakotans will have is a lot of rusting junk in their fields and polluted water. The profits will have been spent or gone elsewhere. And, yes, Silent, I too believe that there is less than 10 years to wait for the finish. Maybe as few as 3-5.
SilentRunning on Wed, 20th Mar 2013 2:47 am
BillT, I wonder what the Oil shills will say when North Dakota’s output starts to drop? Will they blame the government? The evil Greens? Big Foot?
I suspect the party line will change to “WE’VE GOT TO DRILL MORE TO REPLACE THE BAKKEN!! – WE’RE DESPERATE!!!!”
MrEnergyCzar on Wed, 20th Mar 2013 4:07 am
It’s not worth it to build a pipeline from a bubble…
MrEnergyCzar
Bluto DoC on Wed, 20th Mar 2013 3:28 pm
In 30 years, as rich Texas and North Dakota deposits continue to produce, I wonder if we will still be hearing that oil production is gonna stop “any day now” … ? Pretty scary when any alternative to economic collapse is seen as a threat.
SilentRunning on Wed, 20th Mar 2013 11:55 pm
Bluto, the question isn’t when the oil stops, but when we ca no longer produce ever larger amounts – as well as what the costs are to produce those amounts.
You must admit that the cheap, easy oil is already declining. If it weren’t, oil companies wouldn’t even be considering fracking for oil. They would be using the “gusher” wells of yesteryear. The problem with those wells? They have been pumped out, and the oil only trickles out.
A tiny bit of research will show you that the average well in North Dakota only produces 145 barrels per day (this is from the N. Dakota state government). A bit more research will show you that fracked wells are (A) very expensive to create and (B) deliver a short burst of oil followed by a STEEP decline – typically producing less than 20% of the peak volume in less than a year. That means you have to keep drilling and drilling and drilling. Lots of millions of dollars to produce not much oil per well. That means HIGH COSTS.