November production declined to 733,097 barrels per day (bopd) from revised 749,322 in October. That is a decline of 16,225 bopd, or 2.2%. That is still the second highest ever production.
Statewide stats here, Bakken-only here.
The director of NDIC indicated this is primarily due to bad weather in the month:
November saw a small decline in drilling with a very large decline in hydraulic fracturing resulting in a 2.2% decline in oil production rate from October. More operators are transitioning to higher efficiency rigs and implementing cost cutting measures at the end of their 2012 capital budgets, but the primary reason was winter storm Brutus. Williams County was impacted the most with November 10, 2012 being the snowiest day since 1901.
Not sure I understand the comment about a decline in the drilling activity since the number of producing wells hit a new high of 7,864. The previous record high was 7,796 in the prior month. I believe the comment; I just don’t understand it.
There is a bad storm in the state today. Storm’s name is Gandalf.
Williston airport is closed, so I hear. Several flights cancelled, that I can see online. Storm Gandalf will likely impact January production stats.
Bruce Oksol’s comment at Million Dollar Way:
we may need to start comparing year-over-year production numbers (for example, November, 2012, with November, 2011), now that we’re moving into the manufacturing phase, rather than consecutive month-over-month due to significant weather changes during some periods