Hyperbole

The number sounds big, but for North Dakota, it is trivial and insignificant.

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

The Bureau of Land Management’s North Dakota office is sitting on more than 500 oil and gas drilling permit applications, the White House told Sen. Heidi Heitkamp’s office this week.

The BLM, which processes permits to drill on federal land, has furloughed more than 10,000 employees since the government shut down Oct. 1.

Unless I missed it the article does not break down how many of these permits affect North Dakota; this is a national number. North Dakota alone will process almost 3,000 new permits this year.

According to yesterday's Director's Cut, there are no operators drilling in North Dakota's BLM-managed "grasslands."

I have blogged from the beginning that operators like XTO and KOG are heavily involved in the reservation, in Dunn County, and permits continue to be issued for fields in the reservation. 

Operators outside of North Dakota affected by this shutdown may, in fact, move their rigs to North Dakota. Except for the fact that the shutdown will be history by the end of the week.