Rig count reflects oil boom in North Dakota
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North Dakota topped the century mark in the number of active oil rigs this week for the first time since February 1982.
There were 102 active rigs as of Wednesday. The state is still below the all-time high of 146 rigs that came in October 1981, said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. Ness said the numbers are a positive for the future of the North Dakota oil industry.
Ness said improvements in technology have allowed rigs to be more productive and efficient with the advent of horizontal drilling. “That’s the real story,” he said. Ness said that one of today’s rigs is able to do the same amount of drilling as eight older rigs in about one-third of the time.
Ness said there are roughly 4,500 producing oil wells in the state with about 1,000 new wells that ca
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