BISMARCK – The director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources expects oil production in the state to remain relatively steady for 2025 and the price of oil to remain steady for the near term. However, Director Nathan Anderson acknowledges there is a new administration coming into office and geopolitical items across the globe can be impactful to pricing.

Anderson said he also expects the rig count and number of frac crews in 2025 to remain steady, with expected month to month fluctuations.

The rig count decreased slightly to start the year. He said a potential reason was related to the numerous mergers throughout the basin – new operators looking for capital efficiency gains.

“Mergers and acquisitions continue to occur, and it is expected that integrations of these companies will occur over the coming year,” Anderson said.

Anderson released the most recent oil and gas production numbers on Friday. The numbers are normally about two months behind.

The newest numbers show North Dakota produced 36.632 million barrels of oil or an average of 1.221 million barrels of oil a day in November.

Anderson said it is important to note November is a 30-day month. He said October, with 31 days, had 36,517 million barrels of oil and 1.178 million barrels per day.

“That’s a 43,000 barrels per day rebound or increase from the month of October to November,” Anderson said.

In regard to the crude oil price, Anderson said the November West Texas Intermediate price was about $70 a barrel and the North Dakota Market was at $63.63, which is 9.1% below revenue forecast.

He said the North Dakota Light Sweet price is no longer available to include in the report.

“The source is no longer available and the team at DMR is looking for a good alternative for that data,” he said.

Natural gas production numbers for November were 3,464,900 MCF a day.

Anderson said the gas capture rate remains strong in the state at 95%, although there are fluctuations in gas capture through the state.

He said 87 wells were permitted in December and 78 in November.

“So up from November (and) close to the target of 100,” he said.

November had a rig count of 37 and on Jan. 17, the rig count was 31, according to the report.

Anderson said other relevant rig counts, according to the Baker Hughes report, are the United States rig count, at 584, Texas at 282, New Mexico at 103 and Oklahoma at 43.

He said the combined Texas and New Mexico site of the Permian Basin is 304 rigs, which is 52% of the rigs in the U.S.

He said the number of wells waiting on completion in North Dakota went down slightly from 334 in October to 301 in November.

The number of inactive wells in the state is around 2,000, and the number of completed wells for the month of December (preliminary number) was 89, according to the report. In November, the state had 19,226 (preliminary number) of producing wells. In October, the state had 19,334 producing wells, an all-time high number.

On the Fort Berthold Reservation, Anderson said, 172,554 barrels of oil a day were produced in November. He said, currently, two rigs are actively working on the reservation.

“There’s just under 3,000 active wells, two wells waiting on completion and roughly 135 drilling permits in hand,” he said.

Currently, he said, there’s 14 active frac crews in the state.

“Operators continue to maintain a permit inventory of approximately 12 months while DMR permit timing remains around 40 days. DMR continues to see longer and longer lateral permit applications trending from 2 mile laterals to the 3 and 4 mile laterals,” he said. “As discussed over the last couple months, there is a trend to longer laterals. The team at the DMR is assembling data relating to total lateral footage drilled and completed. This data will be important to know as the trend continues. Some preliminary data indicates the total drilled and completed footage is increasing year over year. I expect this data to become available in the coming months.”