As of yesterday, I counted 1,613 new oil well drilling permits in North Dakota (yes, some of them are for salt water disposal) for calendar year 2010.
At that pace, "we" are on track for 1,697 new permits for 2010. I have a hunch new permit action will slow substantially as we get closer to the last two weeks of December.
Most likely, the final number will be 1,680 +/- 20.
Most of the permits have been for the Bakken; some for Three Forks; and, a smattering of others for the Madison, Red River, Lodgepole, Birdbear, and others.
For comparison, here are the number of permits that were issued in the current boom (these are from my database and differ slightly from official NDIC numbers):
2006: 422
2007: 497
2008: 953
2009: 626
2010: 1,613 (as of December 13, 2010)
Note: there are about 5,000 active wells in North Dakota at the present time.
The number of wells that reported out results for those years:
2006: 195
2007: 359
2008: 706
2009: 484
2010: 325 (includes wells that have reached total depth but have not reported production numbers)
For previous commentary on this, click here.
