Oil Production, Bakken Region 1,400 1,200 THOUSAND BARRELS/DAY 1,000 800 600 400 200 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 U.S. Energy Information Administration | Drilling Productivity Report | September 2016 accommodate all the growth. Eventually, more employees, equipment, trucks and fuel transports were added to their co-op to handle the extra demands. “Fortunately, we maintained our employees,” he says. “Today, we’ve continued to keep that same crew.” Drilling Downturn The oil bubble started to burst almost two years ago when North Dakota crude oil prices plunged to about $30 a barrel, a far cry from the near-$80-a-barrel price of 2012. Today, new well-drilling has nearly halted, and countless drilling companies have exited America’s second largest oil fi eld. Thousands of workers who helped drill those 13,000 wells have left, too. At its peak in 2012, there were 218 oil rigs drilling in North Dakota. In September 2016, that number had dropped to just 33, according to the North > More than 13,000 oil wells dot the rural landscape of western North Dakota’s Bakken region. Your CHS Connection 21