N. Dakota oil output grows in October

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News Wires

17 December 2012 18:59 GMT

North Dakota's oil production hit another record high in October, rising by nearly 18,000 barrels per day from September to just under 750,000 bpd, the state department of mineral resources said on Monday.

Most of the output came from shale oil in the state's Bakken and Three Forks shale formation, where output rose by a little more than 19,000 bpd in October to just over 682,000 bpd, the regulator's data showed, Reuters reported.

However, the output growth was slower that month as drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations cooled off due to cooler weather.

Output rose by 2.5% from September levels, the lowest monthly growth since July, the news wire said.

The number of rigs drilling for oil in North Dakota fell in October and continued to decline, reaching 182 in December, compared with the all-time high of 218 in May, Lynn Helms, director of the department, said in a note.

North Dakota's oil output is fast approaching that of OPEC-member Qatar, which produced 750,000 bpd in October and November, according to a Reuters survey.

Earlier this year, the state became the second-largest oil producer in the United States next to Texas just a few years after oil companies unlocked the state's oil bounty in the Bakken.

Preliminary figures from September indicate Texas produced an average of 1.34 million barrels of crude per day during the month, up from 1.01 million barrels in September 2011.