North Dakota oil output down only slightly in July

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WILLISTON, N.D., Sept 14 (Reuters) - North Dakota's daily oil production fell less than 1 percent in July, state regulators said on Monday, a drop far less than many feared and one showing the state's Bakken shale formation could continue pumping high volumes of crude for the foreseeable future despite sliding prices.

The state, the No. 2 U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . crude producer, had output of 1,201,920 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in July, down from 1,211,328 bpd in June, according to the Department of Mineral Resources, which reports on a two-month lag.

The slight dip in output came despite a more than 50 percent plunge in crude prices in the past year that has eroded the oil industry's profitability. Indeed, North Dakota's drilling rig count has dropped alongside the price of oil, and is 12 percent below June levels.

Yet advances in technology and efficiencies have helped the productivity of each drilling rig roughly double in the past year, helping the industry do more with less.

Highlighting that gain, the number of producing wells in North Dakota hit 12,940 in July, an all-time high.

Natural gas production rose slightly in the month to about 1,657,138 million cubic feet per day, also an all-time high. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)