North Dakota’s oil output could take about a month to recover after a severe freeze cut production by more than half this week, state officials said.

Oil output in the third-largest oil producing state was estimated to be down 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 400,000 bpd, or about 30%, on Friday, according to the North Dakota Pipeline Authority. That compared with production outage of 500,000 bpd to 550,000 bpd on Thursday.

“January is going to be a very bad month for production,” said Lynn Helms, director of the state’s Department of Mineral Resources.

The state this week also reported a handful of operational issues and leaks, including an oil spill and water line leak.

The cluster of spills could double as the weather warms because of the stress the temperature changes put on energy infrastructure, Helms told a press conference on Friday.

North Dakota oil production totaled 1.278 million bpd in November, according to the latest state data, up 24,000 bpd from the prior month.

Since the disruptions, spot prices for Bakken crude in Clearbrook, Minnesota have strengthened to a $2.96 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures CLc1, versus a $1.99 a barrel premium last month.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Georgina McCartney in New York. Editing by Matthew Lewis, Kirsten Donovan)