Update on Future of the Bakken -- NDIC -- North Dakota, USA

A big "thank you" to Gregg for commenting. The comment was posted, but it is too good to get lost among comments, so here it is as a stand-alone post, without editing:

Lynn Helms was on prairie public radio this morning with some interesting numbers. The story isn't posted yet on prairies web site. I think AP and some local media picked up on some of what he had to say. He's talking about 10,000 wells by mid June 2013 and adding six newly built rigs a month thru the end of this year. Also, over 400 permits are backlogged. Ouch!

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/743900a2e68f4c76b1281ea7d6334125/ND--Oil-Drilling-Growth/

This one is from Thursday.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/ndpr/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1804784/Prairie.Region.News/Oil.oversight.staff.beefing.up

I am not quite sure what "400 permits are backlogged" means: whether it is permits the NDIC has yet to issue, or whether we are talking about permits for wells yet to be spudded. Because I can come up with more than 900 permits that are yet to be spudded, my hunch is that "400 permits" refers to NDIC activity.  If so, that's a heck of a lot of permits yet to be issued, and requests pour in weekly.