According to the recent North Dakota Mineral Resource’s Director’s Cut, North Dakota crude oil production dropped by an average of more than 200,000 barrels per day in April in response to a steep drop in oil prices. This equals about a 15% drop.
Click here for April Production Results
Click here for April Director’s Cut
Director of the Department of Mineral Resources Lynn Helms said the 15% decline was the biggest month-to-month drop since record-keep began in 1970.
In his monthly Director’s Cut news conference, Helms said April production averaged 1.22 million bbl/day, down from 1.43 million bbl/day in March. And he said the news is not getting any better. He added that he expects the May production average will be around 950,000 bbl/day.
The good news is that the drop in production has bottomed out and “turned the corner.” Helms said he believes the low point occurred the week of May 16-23 and has climbed 60,000-to-100,000 bbl/day since then.
He cautioned that U.S. crude oil stocks are continuing to increase at a time of year when they should be falling, so would prefer to see a slow rebound in crude production.
Some media outlets and social media posts have been reported that nearly 7,000 wells have been shut in, but according to Helms, fewer than 2,200 wells on the “Inactive” list.
He said that’s because producers are continuing to operate many of their wells at a much-reduced rate to keep them mechanically sound. Helms added that “engineers” have noticed trying to start a well back up again is very expensive and difficult. Many of the wells that have been completely shut down fall into the category of conventional or legacy wells.
The April Production report showed just 390 producing wells in that category, Helms recalled that the first time in his time in office that he’s seen that number fall under 1,000.
Natural gas production also dropped significantly during the month, falling about 13% to an average of 2.7 billion cubic feet per day.
For the first time since the regulation was put into place, industry hit it’s statewide capture target of 88% of captured produced gas.
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