America Sitting On An Oil Bonanza?

Next Energy News ^ | 02/21/08 | Anonymous

[coffee260]

An oil bonanza located in North Dakota?

Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x

America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.

In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951. The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel.

It was not until 2007, when EOG Resources of Texas started a frenzy when they drilled a single well in Parshal N.D. that is expected to yield 700,000 barrels of oil that real excitement and money started to flow in North Dakota. Marathon Oil is investing $1.5 billion and drilling 300 new wells in what is expected to be one of the greatest booms in Oil discovery since Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938.

The US imported about 14 million barrels of Oil per day in 2007 , which means US consumers sent about $340 Billion Dollars over seas building palaces in Dubai and propping up unfriendly regimes around the World, if 200 billion barrels of oil at $90 a barrel are recovered in the high plains the added wealth to the US economy would be $18 Trillion Dollars which would go a long way in stabilizing the US trade deficit and could cut the cost of oil in half in the long run.

[snarks_when_bored]

Let’s use up their oil first.

[RandallFlagg]

Gas Pump Stickers (What I'm doing about gas prices)

[joseph20]

Precisely what I was thinking.

[NonValueAdded]

Ah yes, the Burns Slant Drilling Co. /obscure

[CPT Clay]

Isn’t the Bakken only 15 ft thick in most places?
Or at least the oil bering part?

[Thickman]

Oops! Isn't there an endangered species or two up there that will give the Watermelons all the reason they need to stop this atrocity of American energy independence and economic stimulus?

[Incorrigible]

Excellent!

[imskylark]

Too bad we won’t be able to use it. Democrats will make sure of that.

[kellynla]

ping

[mothball]

I believe it’s a certain species of gnats.

[MarkeyD]

Yes, I think there is.

[thackney]

The stratigraphy of the Bakken Formation has been extensively researched and documented by North Dakota geologist Julie A. LeFever. Throughout most of the Williston Basin, the Bakken Formation has three members:

• The Upper Member, a 23-foot thick black marine shale;

• The Middle Member, an 85-foot thick interbedded layer of limestone, siltstone, dolomite, and sandstone; and

• The Lower Member, a 50-foot thick black marine shale.

Current efforts are now focused on the Middle Member of the Bakken Formation, which has more porosity and permeability than the adjacent shales.

Technology-Based Oil and Natural Gas Plays:
Shale Shock! Could There Be Billions in the Bakken?
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/ftproot/features/ngshock.pdf
Page 3

[chuckles]

Yeah but what about the North Dakota flightless blind prairie dog salamander?

I'll be starting my campaign to save them this week. /sarc>

[goldstategop]

It would cut the price of oil here dramatically and we could give every American citizen rent-free income. Just like in Alaska. We could virtually eliminate poverty and class divisions in the country. Of course we have a Left that refuses to see how energy exploration and development at home can not only make America energy self-sufficient, it can lead to a tide that rises all boats at home. The question is why aren't we doing it? Think of all the money we can spend to make every American more prosperous and secure America's future and break the back of OPEC and Russia's oil despots. Let's not keep enriching our adversaries.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[saganite]

This whole article is somewhat off the mark. The USGS is likely to report the oil there at about 100 billion barrels for now because they only want to report the oil that is recoverable with current technology. The rate of recovery runs as high as 10% in some wells so it looks like 10 billion barrels or so for now. And lastly, companies have been drilling this formation since about 1997 or so. We didn’t just stumble across this discovery last year. Typical media hype. Still, this is a hell of a big deal and when the USGS drops the survey on us the networks will finally take notice and hopefully the price of oil will drop on the news.

[thackney]

Lets quit funding our enemies and use the dollars at home to develop our own resources including coal-to-liquids, oil shale and methane hydrates.

A couple hundred years after those have run out, we can move on to other technologies. Because we kept our dollars at home, we will be able to fund those as well.

[jjw]

i think we need a new group for pings, of fantastic technology and discoveries that will vastly improve our lives, but always five years from now. The cancer and diabetic cures can go here, the oil discoveries. The batteries that charge in 1 minute.

let me know when the oil is flowing, cause I don't buy it

[Thickman]

ping

[snarks_when_bored]

We give them paper; they give us oil. Seems fair to me.

Depleting the mineral reserves of your adversaries is also a reasonable goal.