1291

That's the number of new permits that "we" are on track to grant in 2010 based on the number of permits granted so far this year.

As of June 30, the mid-point of the year, 640 new permits have been granted by the North Dakota Industrial Commission. Two of them were in the "99XXX" series but all the rest were standard oil and gas permits. If "we" maintain that pace, we should see about 1300 new permits this calendar year, well ahead of the record 954 two years ago.

Today, there are 129 active rigs in North Dakota, one shy of the record 130 that was reached for a very short period (less than one day) earlier this year.