Something to think about

[dan_s]

North Dakota has passed Alaska to become the second-leading oil-producing state in the nation, trailing only Texas. State Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms tells the Grand Forks Herald that North Dakota oil production in March averaged 575,490 barrels daily, another record. The crude is coming from a record 6,636 wells.

Alaska saw its production fall to 567,481 barrels per day in March. North Dakota was the ninth-largest oil-producing state just six years ago, but the state's oil production has nearly quadrupled since March 2007.

Now think about this:
> Alaska once produced over 2 million bbls of oil per day
> It has taken over $100 Billion in capital to get North Dakota's production over half a billion bbls per day.
> Each year, existing oil fields around the world are depleting at rates of 4% to 8%, so the world must replace 3 to 6 million bbls per day of oil production each year just to stay even.
> "Drill Baby Drill" is not just a campaign slogan. If we don't drill thousands of new wells each year, oil production will drop and so will the world's standard of living.
> This is why I remain bullish on the drillers and why the age of Cheap Oil is never coming back.