Natural gas production in North Dakota averaged 3.36 Bcf/d in February, up 12% month/month, according to the state’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).
February “was a very good month for the state, recovering from the late-December/early-January winter weather,” said DMR’s Lynn Helms, Oil and Gas Division director, during a press conference.
Operators captured and marketed 95% of wellhead gas production, reflecting efforts to stamp out routine flaring.
The price of natural gas delivered to the Northern Border Pipeline system at Watford City, ND, stood at $1.39/Mcf as of Friday (April 12), up from $1.13 around the same time last year, but still well below historical averages. NGI’s Northern Border Ventura price averaged $1.320/MMBtu on Thursday.
Helms was joined by North Dakota Pipeline Authority Director Justin Kringstad, who stressed the importance of adding natural gas egress capacity in the state. He noted that by the end of this year, North Dakota gas is expected to account for more than 90% of volumes on the Northern Border system, which originates in Western Canada and is the primary outlet for Bakken Shale natural gas to reach the Midwest market.
Kringstad said WBI Energy Inc.’s 20,600 Dth/d Wahpeton Expansion project in southeastern North Dakota is expected to be complete by year-end.
He emphasized the importance “of getting additional projects online as quickly as possible…both in-state and interstate. It will likely be a number of months before anything is ready to go public on larger scale pipeline systems, but things are certainly in the works, and there’s a lot of interest in figuring out what’s going to be the next big project to assist the basin.”
Helms, meanwhile, said North Dakota plans to fight various regulatory efforts by the Biden administration, including new rules on federal oil and gas leasing and methane emissions.
“The federal rule business just continues to rain down upon us,” said Helms.
He referenced recent moves by the Bureau of Land Management to update onshore leasing rules and curb methane emissions from federal acreage, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed waste emissions charge for excess methane emissions.
“We’re pushing back on all of those, and we’re hopeful that we can stop much of the damage from those new federal rules during the time that we can approach Congress and the courts…”
Drilling and completions activity in the state both remain below levels needed for sustained production growth, according to Helms.
The state’s rig count stood at 36 as of April 12 after averaging 40 in March.
The rig count is “still kind of stuck in those upper 30s,” said Helms, “although we have been told by companies…that they’re looking to add a couple of rigs as we get into the summer drilling season.”
Well completions fell to 56 in March from 92 in February, preliminary DMR data show. “March completions fell off pretty dramatically,” Helms said. “That’s not enough to sustain and to grow production.”
He added, “We think…that is a temporary thing. The weather in March was not really very conducive to a lot of truck traffic and movements.”
The tally of drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells stood at 300 as of February, compared to 284 in January, “so the DUC well inventory is really nonexistent,” said Helms.
There were 12 active hydraulic fracturing crews in the state as of April 12, Helms said, versus 13 a month earlier.
The number of wells permitted in the state totaled 72 in March, versus 63 in February.
