The amount of crude oil produced in the US is at its lowest level ever.

But the downward trend reported by the Energy Infomation Agency is not reflected in North Dakota.

The State Oil and Gas Division reports crude oil production here is at its highest level ever - and the state is now fourth in the nation in oil production.

Tonight, we show you how the process of finding oil gets started.

Before seismic crews start their work to uncover oil deposits. Before drilling rigs are erected. Before any oil is pumped from the ground. Indoor work has to be done - where the heaviest lifting is in carrying reams of titles from storage to a nearby desk. And here, in the Mountrail County Courthouse in Stanley, there's been a lot of that kind of exercise in the past few years.

(Jan Taylor, Mountrail County Dept. Recorder) "Our recording is increasing every day."


Jan Taylor is deputy recorder and says the traffic of people searching lease ownership records has grown so much, the county has more than doubled its workforce in this office.

(Jan Taylor, Mountrail County Dept. Recorder) "We used to be a two-person office, now we're a five. And we probably could use more but there's no place to put them." (Brock Witikko, Oil Man) "I like it there's a lot of documents and you learn a lot every day. There's always something new you come across in a document you never knew before."


Brock Witikko is what's known as an oil-man - the person - man or woman - who scours land ownership records, looking for people who own the mineral rights on land that oil companies think might hold promise for crude oil.

(Brock Witikko, Oil Man) "Everyone keeps pretty quiet, nobody knows who's working where. In this courthouse there's a lot of area covered."


They work in private - searching for the next big find - and it's time consuming work poring over 640 acre sections of land, discovering just how many contacts might be needed to make a lease deal.

(Brock Witikko, Oil Man) "On any one section you can have as many as 16 reports, or you can end up doing what rarely happens, one report. You have to look at it and see how many reports you'll have to break each section down into. It can be anywhere from a 40 acre section to a full 640."


And sometimes, he's amazed at what he finds.

(Brock Witikko, Oil Man) "Every now and then you come across a particular mineral owner who has a large sum of minerals and you think about it and say, that's pretty impressive."


And, judging by the activity still going on in this courthouse, there are still many more mineral rights owners who stand to make lucrative deals with oil companies in the fourth-largest oil producing state in the US. In Stanley, Jim Olson, KX News.

North Dakota's oil production in 2008 was more than double what it was in 2004 - and the highest it's ever been.

At the end of August of this year, there were more than 43-hundred producing oil wells in the state - also the highest number in state history. watch the video | save this article / add to your favorites list