OREANDA-NEWS. Crude breakeven prices in the four most productive counties of the Bakken shale in North Dakota are $24-$41/bl, signaling that drilling could continue even at current WTI prices, according to data released this week from the state's Department of Mineral Resources.

In the most active county for drilling — McKenzie county — the breakeven price is $26/bl. Producers in that county have 27 active rigs. The breakeven is $41/bl for Mountrail county and $34/bl for Williams county.

The lowest breakeven price in North Dakota is $24/bl in Dunn county which has 10 active rigs.

The data examined breakeven prices in a dozen counties. Of those, eight were below $50/bl.

WTI crude prices have fallen this month after averaging near $60/bl in May and June. The Nymex light, sweet contract yesterday settled down by 75?/bl to $47.39/bl, falling for the fourth straight session to its lowest since 20 March. Prices today slid further to below $47/bl in intraday trade before moving higher later in the session.

The low prices have curtailed drilling in North Dakota where active rigs have fallen to the lowest levels since November 2009. The state said on 10 July that it had 73 active rigs, down from 78 in June and 83 in May.

But crude and natural gas production increased in the state thanks to greater efficiency, better results, and a backlog of non-completed wells.

Crude output increased in May to 1.2mn b/d, up by about 3pc from April and natural gas production rose by nearly 7pc to 1.6 Bcf/d (45mn m?/d). About 95pc of all production was in the Bakken and Three Forks formations.

In addition, drilling permits increased in June to 192, from 150 in May, signaling optimism about Bakken drilling.