BISMARCK — Oil production in North Dakota continues on an upward track as the U.S. war with Iran nears the seven-month mark.
The ongoing conflict has pushed crude oil prices higher, causing Americans to pay more at the gas pump.
But while North Dakotans shell out more for gas, the state’s financial picture looks rosier because it relies heavily on oil and gas taxes for revenue to fund vital infrastructure and programs.
Gunther Harms, with the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources’ oil and gas division, gave a media briefing on state oil production numbers on Monday, Sept. 21.
The numbers are from July, the latest month for which the data is available.
Harms said North Dakota produced 35.85 million barrels of oil in July, for an average of 1.156 million barrels a day.
That’s an increase from June’s production of 34.64 million barrels,
or an average 1.154 million barrels a day.
The July figure is 5.15% above the state’s revenue forecast, he said.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, a benchmark oil price used primarily in the U.S., was $102.54 a barrel on Monday, a huge jump from $86.60 a barrel a month ago when the last media briefing was held.
At the gas pump, the national average is $4.47 a gallon,
up 16 cents from the previous week, according to AAA.
North Dakotans paid an average $4.23 a gallon and Minnesotans an average $4.39 a gallon on Monday.
The North Dakota market oil price for July was $75.56 a barrel.
That number is 32.6% above the revenue forecast, which is based on a $57 barrel price.
North Dakota is in record territory when it comes to the number of producing oil wells, too.
The July number of 20,072 producing wells, up 111 from the month prior, was an all-time high for the state, Harms said.
As for rig counts, a statistic that North Dakota monitors in real time, the September average is 28 rigs.
“We actually stayed consistent through some moving of rigs between operators,” Harms said.
Huebner is a 35+ year veteran of broadcast and print journalism in Fargo-Moorhead.