The bottom of the barrel
BY ALYSSA MEIER
Editor
Even though McLean County sits on the very edge of Bakken country, not breaking the top ten for North Dakota’s oil producing counties, it is feeling the brunt of oil prices that continue to drop.
County Auditor Les Korgel told McLean County Commissioners this month that WTI crude oil had dropped below $50 a barrel, hitting the $45 mark late last week. North Dakota light sweet oil was also falling from $59 a barrel in September to around $23 early this week.
With a seventh of the county’s annual revenue coming from oil and gas production, Korgel said the figures were something to watch. Korgel said the 2019 budget anticipated $720,000 in oil and gas revenue. If prices didn’t rebound, that number could be closer to $300,000.
“Instead of getting $60,000 a month in oil and gas revenue, we will get, if production values stay the same, about $20,000 to $25,000,” Korgel said. “That’s a big hit.”
Korgel said the trade war between China and the U.S. is factoring into the sinking oil prices, which are also being hurt by an imbalance in supply and demand.
“Both Texas and North Dakota are hitting all-time highs on production,” Korgel said. In October, North Dakota produced 1.39 million barrels of oil a day and 79 million MCF of gas per day. A preliminary report provided by Korgel also showed the number of producing wells in the state at 15,344, another record.
