File Photo North Dakota reached an all-time high of 19,117 producing wells in August.

BISMARCK – North Dakota reached an all-time high of 19,117 producing wells in August, according to the assistant director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources.

Mark Bohrer gave the annual report on the state’s oil and gas production on Thursday.

The August oil and gas numbers are the most recent ones available.

Of the 19,117 producing wells, 16,962 or 89% of the wells in the state are now conventional Bakken/Three Forks wells and 2,155 or 11% of the wells are produced from legacy conventional pools.

Bohrer said North Dakota produced more than 1.179 million barrels of oil a day in August. He said that was a slight increase of 8% from the July numbers and about 7% above the revenue forecast.

“We’ve been expecting this production uptick for some time now based on the completions we saw in August and that seems to have come true,” he said.

He said 1.148 million barrels of oil a day is coming from the Bakken and Three Forks formations. That’s roughly 97% of the state’s production.

Three percent or 30,643 barrels of oil a day comes from the legacy pools, according to the report.

Bohrer said crude oil prices were down slightly in August ($67.10 a barrel for N.D. light sweet and $76.68 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate). But, he said, crude oil prices have gone up slightly above the revenue forecast for the oil price numbers with Thursday’s prices at $70.50 a barrel for N.D. light sweet and $70.68 for West Texas Intermediate.

According to Bohrer, in August, the state was producing roughly 3.5 million cubic feet (MCF) a day of natural gas, up about 1.8% over the July numbers. He said the gas capture was at 95%, which is a 1% increase over the July numbers.

The state has been at 100 wells permitted in both August and September.

“We’ve been at that number for about three months now and that’s the number we feel we need to be at to allow production to grow – that 1-2% that we’re seeking,” Bohrer said.

“Rig count has been steady. There’s 40 rigs running today (Thursday),” he said.”Even with all the mergers and acquisition going on, our rig count has remained fairly steady.”

He said about 376 wells were waiting on completions and 1,903 wells were inactive. This was an uptick compared to July when there were 1,771 inactive wells.

He said the wide fluctuations in inactive wells from month to month are not unusual.

“Wells get shut in for different reasons. One of the big reasons they get shut in is for fracking of offset wells,” he said.

Completions in September were at 58.

“That was a disappointing number,” Bohrer said. He said they were hoping it wouldn’t be that low. “It could be a delay in reporting – a lag when reports come in. We’re hoping that’s what it is,” he said. He said there also could be more 3-mile wells being completed now. Those take longer to complete so the number of wells a crew can complete per month is not as large as if they are all 2-mile wells. We’re going to start crunching the numbers on that, analyzing that data, to see what the relationship there is,” he said.

On the Fort Berthold Reservation, Bohrer said, the overall production was 196,207 barrels of oil a day.

“That’s up 3% from last month, which is good news. It was down 3% last month so it’s relatively steady on a longer trend average,” he said. He said one rig is actively drilling on the reservation. Seven wells are waiting on completion.

“Our drilling rig count remains steady due to mergers and acquisitions but we expect it to increase into the mid-40s over the next one to two years,” Bohrer said.

Exxon Mobil Corp. announced this week it is seeking to sell assets in the Bakken.

“We have heard that they are looking to sell some of their assets. I have not reached out to Exxon. They did reach out to have a conversation with me. I just haven’t had time to get back to them on that. Until I speak with Exxon I would not feel comfortable commenting on what assets they’re looking to divest,” Bohrer said.

According to a report by Reuters news agency, a company spokesman and two sources, all asking not to be identified, said Exxon is exploring market interest to sell select assets in the Bakken, which includes about 137 operated wells and 676 non-operated and royalty wells across 49,000 acres in North Dakota. Once finalized, the sale could reach up to $500 million. Exxon is one of the top producers in the Bakken, the third largest oil-producing region in the United States.