BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota regulators said Thursday that oil production in January fell 4% from the month before, due in large part to high winds that led to power outages in the oil patch.
The state’s daily crude output for January was 1.15 million barrels, down from 1.22 million barrels in December. Oil data reported to the state lags by several months.
“We had a day of 90 mph winds in the oil patch, so electric power was lost through significant portions of oil and gas fields,” State Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms said. “It took about 10 days to fully restore the power.”
Helms said the outages knocked about 50,000 barrels per day offline during that time, The Bismarck Tribune reported.
North Dakota also produced about 88.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas in January, a drop of about 1%.
