Production of crude oil in the state rose to 1,085,690 bopd in August, an increase of 36,591 bopd from the updated production of 1,048,099 bopd in July. That is a 3.49% increase.
For context, that is the highest daily production since March 2016. On the front end of the boom, production did not rise to that level until June 2014.
The Williston Herald reports comments from Mr. Helms: Rigs moving away from Bakken’s core, but gas production still hits new high. Rigs are being deployed outside the core area of Bakken, away from the best sweet spots. I’m not sure what that means, but will guess it is an indication that drillers are more confident that prices will stay roughly where they are now or better.
Here is a graph of crude produced in the state and from the Bakken formation (along with Three Forks):
Here is a view of average daily production statewide since 2004:
And another view since 1990:
More graphs on August 2017 data in the next post.