In North Dakota’s Bakken shale oil play, the drilling boom has gone bust. It may only be a temporary bust—but aren’t all booms, and all busts? Here I show a compilation of the latest data from North Dakota, assembled in advance of the state’s monthly release. Production was down 1.5 percent from January to February, that’s in addition to a 3.1 percent decline the month before. North Dakota’s oil production fell 3.1 percent from December to January, and another 1.5 percent from January to February, according to statistics I compiled from the state, ahead of their monthly “Director’s Cut” report. Bakken is mostly in North Dakota—and North Dakota’s oil production is overwhelmingly from the Bakken. So Bakken and North Dakota are, for most intents and purposes, the same thing. So this means Bakken oil production has declined for two months in a row, and was running at a rate […]