North Dakota Oil and Gas History
From southeastern Edgeley in 1892 to the northwestern Williston Basin in 2011, North Dakota has had a rich history of oil and natural gas production.
While the industry has seen peaks and valleys since the late 1800's, North Dakota has recently seen its oil and natural gas industry explode as the 4th largest producer of oil, and contributing to the nation's lowest employment rate.
In the early 1900's, natural gas found in Bottineau County supplied local towns and farms, though it slowed greatly by 1920. Then in 1929, North Dakota's first commercial production was established when the Cedar Creek gas field was extended into Bowman County from Montana. Development and production in this area continued sporadically throughout the 20th century.
North Dakota's energy economy changed forever on April 4th, 1951, when drillers from the Amerada Oil Company struck oil in eastern Williams County near Tioga. Since this discovery, more than 13,000 wells have been drilled, resulting in the production of more than 1.3 billion barrels of oil.
Production in North Dakota's oil fields peaked in 1982. But in that same decade, the groundwork was laid for the discovery that would catapult North Dakota into being one of the nation's leading oil producers.
In 1988, horizontal drilling began at the Bakken formation, a rich oil and natural gas play located within the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Montana. Horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing has changed the course of history once again. The USGS estimates the Bakken Shale to hold roughly 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Together, the Three Forks formation and Bakken formation have produced more than 300 million barrels of oil to date. Oil production from these formations is expected to grow on North Dakota from 350,000/bpd to more than 700,000/bpd in the next 4 to 7 years (Source: U.S. Department of Energy).
Today, North Dakota boasts more than 6,000 wells and produces more than 300,000 barrels of oil per day, supporting thousands of jobs. This has made North Dakota the nation's 4th largest oil producing state and one of the nation's best job climates with a state unemployment rate of only 3.5%, the lowest in the country. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics).
With new technological developments, combined with pro-development policies, North Dakota can continue to be a national leader in oil and natural gas production.
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