Crude oil shipments sag in Albany amid global glut of cheap oil

Statewide, the Transportation Department does not have figures tracking the number of crude oil trains, but "anecdotally, we are seeing a reduced number of oil tankers coming into the state," said agency spokeswoman Jennifer Post.

Globally, oil prices started tumbling after Saudi Arabia announced plans in summer 2014 to increase crude oil production, a move that fueled a supply glut and drove down prices.

[...] industry analysts believed it was an effort by Saudi leaders to maintain their share of the oil market by dropping the price to drive out competitors, like those drilling in the Bakken.

[...] falling prices led a major energy company, Occidental Petroleum Corp., to pull out of the Bakken this fall, selling its properties for $600 million to instead focus its efforts on more profitable shale oil in Texas.

[...] said Stephen Shafer, a retired physician, while the number of oil rigs in North Dakota is down significantly this year, overall production has lagged only slightly, as energy companies have shut down the less-productive rigs first.

A potential wild card for future oil prices was the lifting this month of the four-decade-old U.S. crude oil export ban that dated from the oil shock of the 1970s.