Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

There’s Twice as Much Oil Below North Dakota than We Thought
Free Enterprise ^ | 5/1/13 | Sean Hackbarth

Posted on 05/01/2013 12:27:59 PM PDT by Nachum

Don’t expect the energy boom in Montana and the Dakotas to end anytime soon. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the formations below these three states hold double the amount of oil and triple the amount of natural gas than was believed five years ago. National Journal reports:

The formations, called Bakken and Three Forks, span much of western North Dakota, the northern tip of South Dakota and the northeastern tip of Montana. The last time the United States Geological Survey assessed this area for its oil and gas reserves was in 2008. But that assessment did not include the Three Forks formation, which explains the substantial increase in the estimates. USGS estimates that these two formations together hold 7.4 billion barrels of undiscovered—but technically recoverable—oil and 6.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Reuters points out that USGS estimates are often conservative. The United States Geological Survey noted that 450 million barrels of oil have already been produced from these formations since 2008. Expect much more to come.

(Excerpt) Read more at freeenterprise.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: North Dakota
KEYWORDS: bakken; dakota; drilling; energy; north; oil; usgs
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-43 next last
Drill baby drill!
1 posted on 05/01/2013 12:27:59 PM PDT by Nachum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Nachum

But not enough grammar to go around.


2 posted on 05/01/2013 12:29:21 PM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Izzy Dunne
But not enough grammar to go around.

;-]

3 posted on 05/01/2013 12:34:16 PM PDT by Paine in the Neck (Socialism consumes everything)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

Doesn’t it occur to anyone that the earth is still manufacturing oil and that it keeps appearing and being discovered because the earth is always making more of it. So let’s use it! We can’t do anything else with it!


4 posted on 05/01/2013 12:34:53 PM PDT by cotton1706
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

The process continues, but if the earth was making oil at the rate we are using it, and it has been doing so, we would be about 6 miles deep in oil across the entire globe.


5 posted on 05/01/2013 12:37:03 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

and it has been doing so for 400 million years

Left out an important piece there....

6 posted on 05/01/2013 12:37:53 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: thackney

Not when our Betters have so much invested in (our) poverty.


7 posted on 05/01/2013 12:37:56 PM PDT by 556x45
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Nachum
This is fracking great news!
8 posted on 05/01/2013 12:40:54 PM PDT by immadashell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thackney

I’ve just never bought the idea that we’re running out of oil. The earth was making it for eons before we started using it. And whenever I hear about these new “finds” it always seems to surprise the scientists but doesn’t surprise me. The benefit of being a layman I guess.


9 posted on 05/01/2013 12:41:14 PM PDT by cotton1706
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

I’m coming around to the notion that the earth does indeed “manufacture” crude oil and gas. There is just too much of it to have been organic deposits of dead animals. This explains to me why we are finding more and more, and gaining the technology to extract it. On the other hand, I don’t think the earth is replacing the oil at anywhere near the pace we are using it. Otherwise, wells in northeastern Ohio and Pennsylvania that started the American oil boom would not have run dry.

But yes, there is a lot of oil out there, and more is extractable every year. Will we eventually reach “peak oil?” Probably. But I’ll be dead, in the ground, converted to oil, and maybe pumped into somebody’s gas tank before that happens.


10 posted on 05/01/2013 12:42:03 PM PDT by henkster (I have one more cow than my neighbor. I am a kulak.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

6 miles wasn’t a guess. I’ve done the math.

Without touching the arguement of the source of the oil, it isn’t producing at our rate of consumption.


11 posted on 05/01/2013 12:47:07 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: henkster
But I’ll be dead, in the ground, converted to oil, and maybe pumped into somebody’s gas tank before that happens.

I never owned a muscle car in this life so there is my hope for the next! ;^)

12 posted on 05/01/2013 12:47:35 PM PDT by TigersEye (If babies had guns they wouldn't be aborted)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

I’m also convinced that the earth has accelerated producing idiots and morons who jump on the AlGore bus called “Al’s Snake Oil,” and stymie whatever growth and advances these oil finds will produce.


13 posted on 05/01/2013 12:49:12 PM PDT by Ranger Warrior ("To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men." - Abraham Lincoln)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: henkster

It isn’t animals it is algae and the like.

Oil is only found in sedimentary basins. It is often found in layers under sealing rock with another layer above that with another layer of sealing rock.


14 posted on 05/01/2013 12:49:42 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: henkster
I’m coming around to the notion that the earth does indeed “manufacture” crude oil and gas.

Oil and gas production is a geological process.

Geological processes are continuous (No catastrophism).

Therefore oil and gas production is continuous.

15 posted on 05/01/2013 12:49:56 PM PDT by MAexile (Bats left, votes right)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Nachum
Just about 1000 trillion dollars worth of oil ~ enough to refloat our currency as the strongest money on Earth.

Makes the national debt look like a pittance

16 posted on 05/01/2013 12:51:48 PM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TigersEye

—— I never owned a muscle car in this life so there is my hope for the next! ;^) ——

I saw a 65 year old guy driving a blacked out, tricked out Mustang today, so there’s still hope.

I’d stop short of the fully tricked out version, myself. But it would be fun.


17 posted on 05/01/2013 12:52:27 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

Well, when Idiot Generation dies out and kills itself off, the oil will be there for whoever follows.


18 posted on 05/01/2013 12:52:54 PM PDT by Clock King
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

Develop these resources and the state economies will skyrocket. People will come for work and welfare, cities will spring up, and cities are LIBERAL.

Care should be taken to develop the resource while keeping the Dakotas rural.


19 posted on 05/01/2013 12:54:58 PM PDT by ez (Muslims do not play well with others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nachum

While DC diddles Canada will suck all of it out & sell it to China.


20 posted on 05/01/2013 12:57:30 PM PDT by skeeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-43 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson