Mountrail County is producing 28 1/2 percent of the total oil production in North Dakota, topping the list of the 17 oil-producing counties.
Preliminary oil production figures for May production show Mountrail County produced 5.6 million barrels of oil, according to the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources. That's an increase from the April adjusted oil production when the county produced 5.4 million barrels.
McKenzie County follows with the preliminary figures of 4.4 million barrels of oil produced in May, an increase from the April adjusted oil production number of 4.2 million barrels.
Article Photos
Eloise Ogden/MDN • A pumping unit works in the oil field in the Van Hook area in southern Mountrail County, shown in this photo taken in December. Mountrail County tops the list of North Dakota oil-producing counties for oil production.
Williams and Dunn counties are third and fourth in oil production, with May preliminary figures of 3.4 million barrels for Williams and 2.9 million barrels for Dunn, both increases compared to the April figures.
Williams County's April adjusted oil production was 2.7 million barrels of oil and Dunn County's adjusted oil production was 2.7 million barrels.
The state total for preliminary oil production in May from the 17 oil-producing counties was 19.8 million barrels of oil.
That's an increase of about 1.9 million barrels from the April adjusted oil production when the total for those 17 counties was 18.2 million barrels.
Each of the 17 counties showed increases - from April to May production numbers except McLean and Mercer counties. According to the state May report, 34 wells in McLean County were producing in April and May and Mercer had one well producing for both of those months.
The May preliminary oil production numbers for each of the 17 counties is as follows (the April figures are adjusted production and the May figures are preliminary oil production):
1. Mountrail: April, 5.4 million; May, 5.6 million.
2. McKenzie: April, 4.2 million; May, 4.4 million.
3. Williams: April, 2.7 million; May, 3.4 million.
4. Dunn: April, 2.7 million; May, 2.9 million.
5. Divide: April, 667,729; May, 784,243.
6. Bowman: April, 751,276; May, 760,079.
7. Billings: April, 426,271; May, 435,121.
8. Burke: April, 314,053; May, 433,683.
9. Stark: April, 320,438; May, 377,116.
10. Bottineau: April, 158,291; May, 176,625.
11. McLean: April, 152,529; May, 135,285.
12. Golden Valley: April, 72,412; May, 87,602.
13. Renville: April, 69,312; May, 73,282.
14. Slope: April, 51,536; May, 52,322.
15. Ward: April, 4,150; May, 4,446.
16. McHenry: April, 1,764; May, 2,017.
17. Mercer: April, 201; May, 184.
A total of 6,954 wells were producing oil in North Dakota in May. A year ago, 5,338 wells were producing in May, according to state information.
A total of 639,277 barrels of oil a day was being pumped in May by oil producers, an increase of more than 275,000 barrels since May 2011, when producers were pumping 363,944 barrels a day.