North Dakota oil output keeps rising
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Even though oil prices have been falling, North Dakota's oil production continues to rise.
The state Department of Mineral Resources reports on Tuesday that North Dakota oil producers pumped an average of 639,000 barrels of oil each day in May.
That adds up to almost 20 million barrels of oil for the month.
Production rose almost 5 percent from April's output. The number of producing oil wells went up more than 3 percent. There are more than 6,700 wells in western North Dakota.
North Dakota's oil-producing region has almost twice as many wells as it had five years ago, and oil production has increased fivefold.
In the last three months the benchmark price of West Texas Intermediate crude has dropped from more than $100 a barrel to about $84.
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