North Dakota oil

North Dakota's oil patch has gotten a lot of attention over the last couple years... The discover...  More »

North Dakota's oil patch has gotten a lot of attention over the last couple years... The discovery of the Bakken formation and it's potential has increased the drilling going on in western North Dakota. And that's put our state in a great spot. Donnell Preskey reports... Scattered around North Dakota's quiet countryside these wells are making some noise when comes to our nations' oil production. North Dakota is now the fourth largest oil producing state in the nation... (Ron Ness) ND is 4th right now which is a huge ackomplishment you're passing states like Louisana, Oklahoma, Wyoming on way to 4th. Now get into Alaska, Texas, California is the 3rd largest oil producing state and they're producing 3 times what ND is. Of course we've doubled our production so who knows but that would be a big leap. It's where our oil is coming from that has put the state in the number four spot... (Ness) The bakken is an incredible resource and the technology is improving every day, we're starting to see the increased oil production. 231,000 barells a day in August is a very big number - considering that's more than double what we were three years ago.... At that time North Dakota was ninth on the list of top oil producing states... (Ness) Right now we're getting 1-2% of oil out. Future is very bright because as technology improves we'll get more and more oil production. Ness says the number four ranking builds an even stronger reputation for North Dakota... (Ness) So we are seeing a lot of interest in these companies moving operations here, workers from other areas starting to look at ND. being 4th does show these companies this is a major oil producing area should we set up shop there... should we move people there.. Currently there are around 57 rigs drilling in North Dakota... A year and a half ago there were 98... While oil production has slowed down this year Ness says he expects the rig count to make a rebound in 2010. Ness says being fourth in the nation means more money and jobs for North Dakota... There are 69 oil related companies trying to fill over one hundred positions. Plus Ness says state oil tax revenues for August and September are 149% above what was projected.  « Less