A winter storm last week shut in an estimated 300,000-400,000 b/d of oil production in North Dakota, and producers now must contend with bone-chilling temperatures as they attempt to restart operations, according to the state’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

“If you’ve been dreaming of a white Christmas, you’ve come to the right place,” DMR’s Lynn Helms, director of the Oil and Gas Division, told reporters on Monday. “We had record snowfall in November and record snowfall again in December.”

As blizzard conditions battered the northern Plains last week and into the weekend, “crude oil trucks were not moving, pumpers weren’t on the road, tanks filled up and wells were shut down,” Helms said.

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