North Dakota oil production dropped nearly 2 percent in June as producers scaled back activity, primarily to keep natural gas flaring from exceeding state limits, the state’s top oil regulator said Thursday, Aug. 16. The state produced an average of nearly 1.23 million barrels of oil per day, a drop of more than 20,000 barrels per day from the May record of nearly 1.25 million barrels. “Industry’s tapping the brakes a little bit,” said Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources. Operators flared 388 million cubic feet of natural gas per day in June, falling short of the gas capture target set by the North Dakota Industrial Commission for the second month in a row. Helms said operators voluntarily restricted oil production in June in order to stay in compliance with the gas capture policy, which calls for companies to […]