CURRANT -- A rise in the price of oil to almost $100 per barrel would seem to mean oil production in Railroad Valley in northeastern Nye County would be going gangbusters.

Not so. It's not that the oil industry doesn't want the money. It's just that there's less and less oil in the ground in Nevada every year.

All but one oil field in Nevada lies in Nye County, the exception being the Blackburn Oil Field in Eureka County.

"Production goes down every year," said Rodney Mike, manager of Foreland Refinery. "We refine every drop of oil that's produced in Railroad Valley."

Christy Morris, an analyst for the Nevada Division of Minerals, said Nevada produced 425,705 barrels of oil in 2006. She said Nevada oil production declined 6 percent this year.

Bimonthly reports for 2007 through Aug. 30 show the state produced 276,309 barrels, down from 283,931 barrels for those same months in 2006.

It's a far cry from the glory days in Railroad Valley during the 1980s with the Grant Canyon Oil Well, which was a huge producer, pumping about 10,000 barrels per day. Oil is still trickling from that well, but now it may only produce 100 barrels per day, Mike said.

"The wells are nearing their life cycle and I think it's a natural decline in these wells. We just haven't had anything to replace it," Morris said.

There are about 75 wells operating currently, she said.

"They can't seem to find any wells in the valley. They drill and don't get anything. That's a big part of it. These oil wells have been in production for years," Mike said.

Oil was struck in Railroad Valley in the 1950s, Mike said. In those days, oil came out of the ground by natural pressure, he said. When the Grant Canyon well was really flowing the Foreland Refinery was operating 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

Now the refinery, on Highway 6 in Currant at the junction of Highway 379 to Duckwater, does batch runs. He estimated they produce oil probably 15 days out of the month. Foreland Refinery has 34 paid employees and a fleet of truck drivers.

The refinery isn't necessarily booming financially, despite the high price of oil, he said.

"What we run in one year, some of those refineries in Saudi Arabia run in one day. So if you're trying to compare us to the industry, we're just a drop in the bucket and I think the people that really are making the money or losing the money are the big boys," Mike said.

"The oil that's produced in this valley is not the same kind of oil that you're seeing on the news for $100 a barrel. That is a sweet crude, that is kind of like the difference between beer and champagne," he said.

Foreland Refinery produces different grades of oil, ranging from low sulphur diesel, which makes a good mix in road asphalt, to No. 4 diesel fuel oil, the kind that will fuel power plants.

Nye County oil wells generated $502,311 in taxes in calendar year 2006 out of $577,180 collected statewide. Gross proceeds of taxable production equalled $21.6 million in 2006, net proceeds were $11.9 million.

Nye County taxed $309,587 in oil production during 2006. That's only a fraction of the $5.25 million paid by Round Mountain Gold Corp. for the gold mines in northern Nye County.

Oil production has been a political issue in Nye County, where county officials have tried unsuccessfully for years to garner more of the royalties.

Morris said 90 percent of the state's oil wells are on federal land, where producers pay a 12 percent royalty on production to the federal government. Half of that revenue goes back to the state of Nevada.

The latest attempt was Senate Bill 539 this past session, which asked for 75 percent of the funds reimbursed by the federal government to the state to be distributed to the counties where fuels, minerals and geothermal resources are extracted. The current formula for dividing up the state revenue from the federal royalties is 75 percent goes to the state Distributive School Account, 25 percent to the counties.

There aren't any oil tycoons like the fictional J.R. Ewing of "Dallas" in Nevada. In fact, Morris said only the state of New York produces less oil than Nevada.