Eloise Ogden/MDN North Dakota pumped out 1.225 million barrels of oil a day in June. The state also produced 2.300 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas.

BISMARCK – North Dakota had only a slight dip in oil and gas production in June with 1.225 million barrels of oil a day and 2.300 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas.

In May the state produced 1.246 million barrels of oil a day and 2.315 MCF a day of natural gas.

The newest oil and gas production figures were released on Thursday.

Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, reported a new preliminary all-time high of 14,778 producing wells in June. In May the state had 14,763 producing wells.

On Thursday, 58 rigs were actively drilling in North Dakota, according to the N.D. Oil and Gas Division, a division of the Mineral Resources Department.

The North Dakota sweet crude price was $55 a barrel on Thursday, according to Flint Hills Resources.

Helms said current operator plans are to add one to five more rigs in the third and fourth quarters this year depending on workforce and infrastructure constraints.

“Oil price downside risk has diminished. OPEC approved a plan to increase production through the second half of 2018 to offset Venezuela’s export collapse and U.S. sanctions on Iran. Crude oil futures markets appear to anticipate supply and demand remaining in balance. U.S. crude oil inventories remain approximately equal to the long-term average,” Helms said.

Helms said competition with the Permian and Anadarko shale oil plays for capital and workforce continue to limit drilling rig count in North Dakota.

Helms also said no rigs are actively drilling on federal surface in the Dakota Prairie Grasslands.

He said 14 rigs are actively drilling on the Fort Berthold Reservation and the reservation is producing 258,378 barrels of oil per day. There are 1,882 active wells and 154 wells waiting on completion on Fort Berthold.