North Dakota leads the nation in employment with a 2.7 unemployment rate in December, but 4,000 jobs were lost in the same month, also making the state the US leader in employment declines.  From November to December 2015 and December 2014 to December 2015 the state lead the nation in percent total jobs decline, according to a Bureau of Labor ...

BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota regulators are considering easing a record $2.4 million fine levied against a Texas company for a pipeline spill that spewed saltwater and oil for three months before being detected. The North Dakota Industrial Commission, a three-member all-Republican panel led by Gov. Jack Dalrymple, approved the sanction in June against Woodlands, Texas-based Summit Midstream Partners and ...

The number of oil wells in North Dakota that have been drilled but not fracked eclipsed 1,000 for the first time in September, as producers delayed turning them on in hopes crude prices will soon recover. The milestone, which was widely expected around the second-largest oil producing state, highlights the immense cost pressure companies have come under in the past ...

WILLISTON, N.D. – North Dakota’s daily oil production fell 2 percent in September as slipping crude prices again weighed on the state’s energy industry and forced cuts in the use of drilling rigs and fracking crews. The state produced 1,162,253 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in September, compared with 1,187,631 bpd in August, according to the Department of Mineral ...

North Dakota oil production fell 1.7 percent in August, slipping below 1.2 million barrels per day in the fifth monthly decline since the state’s output peaked last December. The nearly 21,000 barrel-per-day drop from July represented the first time in 12 years that the state’s oil output fell in August, a month when the industry historically has a growth spurt ...

WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — Houston-based oil field services company Halliburton has laid off some of its workers in the western North Dakota oil patch hub of Williston, though the company isn’t providing details. Halliburton in April suspended operations at its facility in Minot and transferred many of the jobs there to locations in Williston and Dickinson, citing “changing business needs ...

BISMARCK, N.D. — State officials say an intern with the North Dakota Geological Survey has found the fossil of an ancient marsupial that’s never been discovered in the state before. The Department of Mineral Resources says Bismarck native Sean Ternes discovered the jawbone of the Glasbius twitchelli. The department says the mouse-sized marsupial was among the first mammals on earth ...

North Dakota’s oil production reached beyond the 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) mark for only the second time in history in May, according to the latest data available from the state’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). The state hit an all-time high of 1.22 million bpd in December 2014 but operators have struggled to reach that level again due ...

The cause of a saltwater spill in McKenzie County has been attributed to a lightning strike, reports the Forum News Service. Last Friday Enduro Operating reported the incident. According to a Department of Mineral Resources news release, approximately 440 barrels of saltwater, also known as brine, was released and contained roughly 21 miles south of Alexander, North Dakota. The release ...

WILLISTON, N.D. — State data show the number of oil drilling rigs in North Dakota is at the lowest level since 2009. The state Department of Mineral Resources says there were 75 rigs drilling in western North Dakota’s oil patch on Monday. That’s 112 fewer than one year ago. There were 214 rigs drilling on the same day in 2012. ...