Here’s RBN Energy’s estimate for hitting 1M bopd, in their 11-19-12 blog post, From a Famine of Pipeline to a Feast of Rail – Giving Thanks for Bakken Delivery. The post graphs N.D. production by month and then adds a trend line:
We added a trend projection (red dotted line) to the same chart on the right – following the period of most rapid growth from July 2011 and projecting forward until production hit 1 MMb/d during the 4th quarter of 2013.
Okay, another estimate. Fourth quarter of 2013. I’ll jot that down.