Amazing North Dakota Energy Facts

The Dickinson (ND) Press has put together a great list of some amazing energy-related facts about the “economic miracle state” of North Dakota, here are a few:

1. Bank deposits have soared in the oil producing counties as people park their windfall in local institutions.

2. North Dakota passed Alaska in 2012 to become the No. 2 oil-producing state in the United States behind Texas, generating massive state budget surpluses from taxes on oil production and creating thousands of millionaire landowners.

3. Royalties are paid to those who own the “mineral rights” to the land, usually farmers or their family. In North Dakota, mineral rights often are heavily divided among heirs or sold to others. In simple terms, a well producing 100 barrels of oil per day sold at $80 a barrel would generate $248,000 in a 31-day month. After state taxes on extraction and production totaling about 11.5 percent, a one-fifth royalty would generate $43,896 for the rights holders that month (and more than half a million dollars per year!).

4. North Dakota vaulted to No. 7 overall among U.S. states in per capita personal income at $47,236 in 2011, up from No. 38 in 2006, when the oil boom started.

5. The latest state estimates project a $1.6 billion general fund surplus in the two-year budget that runs through June 2013, boosted by much stronger than expected oil and gas production and extraction taxes, sales taxes and personal income taxes.

MP: The energy boom in North Dakota, mostly from shale oil, continues to deliver a powerful economic stimulus to the state, making it the most economically successful state in the country in recent years by almost any measure. Along with the drilling activity for shale oil has come thousands of shovel-ready jobs, millions of dollars in royalty payments to local landowners and farmers, rising incomes and wealth, and a huge budget surplus.

*Post courtesy of Mark J. Perry at Carpe Diem.

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