Posted on 04/11/2008 7:15:35 AM PDT by Red Badger
Map showing Williston Basin Province boundary (in red), Bakken-Lodgepole Total Petroleum System (TPS) (in blue), and major structural features in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota
North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin, according to a just-released assessment by the US Geological Survey (USGS). This latest assessment shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency’s 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.
The assessment also identified 1.85 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas, and 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids.
New geologic models applied to the Bakken Formation, advances in drilling and production technologies, and recent oil discoveries have resulted in these substantially larger technically recoverable oil volumes. About 105 million barrels of oil were produced from the Bakken Formation by the end of 2007.
Technically recoverable oil resources are those producible using currently available technology and industry practices. The USGS Bakken study was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol as required by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 2000.
The Bakken Formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest continuous oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. A continuous oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences. The next largest continuous oil accumulation in the US is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil.
The USGS estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of 3.65 billion barrels. Scientists conducted detailed studies in stratigraphy and structural geology and the modeling of petroleum geochemistry. They also combined their findings with historical exploration and production analyses to determine the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil estimates.
USGS worked with the North Dakota Geological Survey, a number of petroleum industry companies and independents, universities and other experts to develop a geological understanding of the Bakken Formation. These groups provided critical information and feedback on geological and engineering concepts important to building the geologic and production models used in the assessment.
Five continuous assessment units (AU) were identified and assessed in the Bakken Formation of North Dakota and Montana: the Elm Coulee-Billings Nose AU, the Central Basin-Poplar Dome AU, the Nesson-Little Knife Structural AU, the Eastern Expulsion Threshold AU, and the Northwest Expulsion Threshold AU.
At the time of the assessment, a limited number of wells have produced oil from three of the assessments units in Central Basin-Poplar Dome, Eastern Expulsion Threshold, and Northwest Expulsion Threshold. The Elm Coulee oil field in Montana, discovered in 2000, has produced about 65 million barrels of the 105 million barrels of oil recovered from the Bakken Formation.
Resources
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Pollastro, R.M., Cook, T.A., Roberts, L.N.R., Schenk, C.J., Lewan, M.D., Anna, L.O., Gaswirth, S.B., Lillis, P.G., Klett, T.R., and Charpentier, R.R., 2008, Assessment of undiscovered oil resources in the Devonian-Mississippian Bakken Formation, Williston Basin Province, Montana and North Dakota, 2008: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2008–3021 *
Technology-Based Oil and Natural Gas Plays: Shale Shock! Could There Be Billions in the Bakken? (US EIA)
It is an area repleat with black footed ferrets which are still on the endangered species list I believe.
Exactly!....the environmentally ill are just two steps behind!
Billions and billions. Or maybe millions and millions.
Nothing wrong with being “conservative” in the estimates, though. It’s better to be surprised at finding more instead of dry holes....................
Certainly an excuse to raise the pump price for gasoline another 25 cents or so.
Who gains by forcing imports?
IMHO, those internationalists who wish to see us all develop an attitude that we are a “world community.” They use environmentalism as the excuse to stop development so that they can pursue an agenda to build a world without national borders, and thus they need to be accountable to anyone in particular. But what do I know...
Still should ahve been upwards of 100 Billion barrels.
I’d prefer millions of billions....................
L.O.L.....tours are already planned and I see a PBS 48 hour fund raising special coming....
In the oil industry we hear many rumors. No other industry has so many flim-flam men around except possibly the gold industry.
Where did hear estimates of “500 billion barrels”? And why is 4 to 5 billion barrels “sad”? Would a trillion barrels be sad just because someone thought there should be a thousand times that? Really don’t see any reason for “sad”.
EARTH FIRST! We’ll mine the other planets later.
there are a lot of people who feel that way.
I wonder why this news hasn’t made it into the MSM news cycle?...........any guesses?
Here ya go!
http://www.endangeredspecie.com/states/nd.htm
It will never happen. The American people are just too stupid to realize that what is happening with the airlines and the cost of food and the ripoff at the pump is because of the stranglehold that liberals have on our policies. They are so ignorant that they swallow bullshit about polar bears and global warming and keep electing maniacs who undermine our economic security. I don’t expect that the change. The millions of morons who swoon for Obama makes me think it will only get worse.
Find that man who can smell oil. There was one found the Mexican elephant. He died penniless.
Well, in this case it's pretty reasonable if you consider the seismic velocity models of the 1980s to today. The imaging of the subsurface that we can do today is quite impressive compared to the 1980s.
“EARTH FIRST! We’ll mine the other planets later.”
Excellent!
Is that available as a bumper sticker?
If not, I’ll just have it tattooed on my forehead......
Doesn’t the ever elusive snipe live there also?
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