Mike Lee, E&E News reporter
Nationally, the number of onshore oil and gas rigs declined to 253 on Friday, compared with 258 the week before, according to Baker Hughes Co. The rig count has fallen every week since March 6.
In North Dakota, Helms said, producers could also be hurt by the court-ordered shutdown of the Dakota Access pipeline. The shutdown was stayed by an appeals court, but if it goes back into effect, it could dampen prices for crude from the state’s Bakken Shale oil field (Energywire, July 15).
State government agencies have been asked to prepare for 15% budget cuts when the state Legislature convenes in January, Helms said.
The price of oil, which briefly turned negative in April, began to recover in May and has since leveled off around $40 a barrel. That’ll help some of the state’s producers, Helms said, but it could take until the fourth quarter of 2021 for North Dakota’s oil production to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
And even that prospect isn’t guaranteed, he said.
“I think we’re going to see a permanent shift in the world’s demand” for oil, he said.
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