oil prices dropWILLISTON, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota’s top oil regulator says recent global oil price drops could potentially halt drilling in several of the state’s counties and force the state to reevaluate its budget.

Lynn Helms is director of the North Dakota Industrial Commission Department of Mineral Resources. Helms says it’s currently not profitable to drill in three counties at today’s price of North Dakota light sweet crude.

Helms says North Dakota light sweet crude traded as low as $66.25 a barrel Wednesday. A barrel traded at more than $90 a barrel as recently as June.

Helms says falling oil prices could force North Dakota to reevaluate its budget for the next biennium. He says that preliminary budget is based off of projections that put the price of North Dakota oil at $90 a barrel.