1675: That's The Number of New Permits Issued So Far in 2010 -- North Dakota, USA

My database shows that North Dakota issued 1,675 oil well permits for calendar year 2010 as of December 29, 2010 (my database is subject to error and will be off by five permits, I assume, but it's pretty close). That puts the state on track to issue 1,684 permits for the year.

It will be interesting to see how close my projections have been for the year. Regardless, this compares with less than a 1,000 permits, the previous "best" showing. I think NDIC is projecting about 2,000 permits to be issued in 2011.