North Dakota's oil production is expected to reach a record 80 million barrels in 2009. This is an increase of more than 27% from the 62.8 million barrels produced in 2008, another record-setting year.

Lynn Helms, director of the state Department of Mineral Resources, gave the forecast but said final production numbers won't be known until sometime in 1Q 2010.

"It's a much better year than we expected earlier in the year," Helm said. "It adds up fast when you're pumping out more than 240,000 barrels a day."

North Dakota rose to become the fourth-largest oil-producing state in the US in 2009, up from the ninth-largest in 2006.

According to the Baker Hughes North America rotary rig count, there have been an average of 62 rigs working in North Dakota this month (same number as in Pennsylvania), and numbers have been steadily rising since the North Dakota working fleet dropped to 35 rigs in May 2009.

The December 2009 average is 21 rigs shy of (25% fewer than) the 83 rigs that were drilling in North Dakota in December 2008.

The average price of North Dakota sweet crude has averaged more than US $62/bbl this December, said Helms. Prices above $50/bbl should keep the rigs busy.

Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, which includes about 160 companies, said that each active drilling rig represents 40 direct jobs and 80 indirect jobs in the state. Although hundreds of workers were laid off earlier this year, there is now a shortage of workers, and Ness expects the shortage to worsen into 2010, expected to be another record-breaking year for oil production.

The state added about 370 producing wells this year, according to Helms, with 4,606 wells operating in December 2009. If prices hold and drilling continues at the current pace, he said that North Dakota could be producing 350,000 b/d by late 2011, up 100,000 b/d from current production.