Record High North Dakota Oil Production in May

Oil production in N. Dakota set some new monthly records in May:

1. A new record for monthly production: 1,120,4576 barrels, a 21% increase from last May, and a 75% increase from two years ago (see chart above).

2. A new record for average daily production: 361,438 barrels. 

3. A new record number of wells producing: 5,329

4. A new record for oil-related jobs: 15,200 (see chart), which is more than double the number of North Dakota oil jobs two years ago.  

Related News: "North Dakota Tax Commissioner Cory Fong says taxable sales and purchases the first three months of the year totaled $3.5 billion, an increase of nearly 34 percent over the year. Fong says officials expected the state's economy to remain strong but were still surprised by the level of the increase. The five cities with the biggest percentage increases for the first quarter all are in western North Dakota's booming oil patch."

As I wrote recently on a previous CD post:

North Dakota's impressive economic success clearly illustrates some of the benefits of domestic energy production: more jobs, record economic growth, huge gains in personal income, and even more tax revenues.  There's no reason that the economic success of North Dakota can't be duplicated elsewhere, if we would only open up more U.S. land and off-shore areas to domestic energy exploration and drilling.     

Update: "According to a new study from the Western Energy Alliance, North Dakota oil production could soon outpace imports from oil-rich nations like Russia, Iraq and Kuwait. The Bakken formation spanning North Dakota and Montana will lead oil production in the region, with an expected 685,000 barrels of oil and condensate a day by 2020 (Note: That's almost double the current daily production)."