ND oil output continues rise, 639K barrels in May

Fuel Fix ^ | July 11, 2012 | Associated Press

[thackney]

Even though oil prices have been falling, North Dakota’s oil production continues to rise.

The state Department of Mineral Resources reports on Tuesday that North Dakota oil producers pumped an average of 639,000 barrels of oil each day in May.

That adds up to almost 20 million barrels of oil for the month.

[redhead]

Son in ND says work has been VERY slow lately. Some crews are leaving, some companies shutting offices. It doesn’t mean the oil is going, just that the demand has dropped, possibly because of recession. People just aren’t driving as much as before. Thanks, BO.

[thackney]

There is no shortage of demand for domestic oil, but we have surpassed the capacity of the pipelines leaving the ND and Montana area. A lot of oil has had to be moved by rail and that is more expensive.

Keystone XL pipeline would have helped move oil from ND to refineries as well as oil from Canada.

People just aren’t driving as much as before.

While total demand is down, we still import more oil from other nations than we produce ourselves. We have demand for more domestic oil, but our infrastructure is still lagging behind.