US Crude Oil Production Sets Records -- WSJ

Link here.

The Bakken (North Dakota) was mentioned in the third paragraph.

U.S. crude-oil production grew by more than one million barrels a day last year, the largest increase in the world and the largest in U.S. history.

In the latest sign of the shale revolution remaking world energy markets, crude production in the U.S. jumped 14% last year to 8.9 million barrels a day, according to the newly released Statistical Review of World Energy, an annual compilation of industry trends published by BP PLC for more than six decades.

The wave of new crude, flowing in oil fields from North Dakota to south Texas, helped keep the global market adequately supplied and helped markets weather declining oil production elsewhere in the world. 

I wonder if Snopes or Jane Nielson will ever update their sites regarding the Bakken. 

Story lines -- this crude oil production record:

• accomplished despite the administration's slow-rolling the permitting process for the oil and gas industry
• accomplished despite harassment of the oil and gas industry (criminal charges for deaths of six or seven ducks; full immunity for wind turbines for unlimited kills of whooping cranes, eagles, hawks, ducks)
• accomplished despite the fact that most federal land is off-limits to drilling
• accomplished mostly on state and private land
• accomplished mostly on-shore
• accomplished despite huge marketing blitz for renewable energy sucking resources from industries that actually work
• accomplished despite production choked back due to inadequate takeaway (Keystone XL killed by the president)
• accomplished despite threats to ban fracking (sword of Democles hanging over the heads of venture capitalists looking at investing in shale)
• accomplished even with the neck of one major under the administration's boot (wow, if that doesn't make me think of scenes out of Germany shortly before WWII), and that story is yet to play out, three years after the initial event

Yes, it's quite a success story. Much of the credit needs to go to guys like Harold Hamm, the face of the Bakken, always cheerleading their efforts, and always seeming to be in good humor despite adversity. Unlike the twenty or thirty renewable energy companies that received tons of money from the government before filing for bankruptcy (or simply disappearing), one can count on one hand, the oil and gas companies that have failed in the past few years; and none received bailouts from the federal government before going under.

Yes, this crude oil production record is quite a story. And it should only get better.