The other factor that was left out by the other Freepers was the price of oil has been pretty steady in that $75-100/bbl range. The price was all over during the Bush administration.
I do not believe this technology is profitable under $50/bbl.
Thackney would know better than I.
One of the things I hear holding backing drilling up in ND is just the lack of storage/pipeline to put the oil. They can drill the wells faster than they get build the infastructure to move the product to market. There is only so much pipeline capacity available. Also, you can only load so many rail tank cars in a day on the BNSF or CPRS railroads.
More oil currently moves out of North Dakota production on rail than on pipeline.
Oil Train Revival: Booming North Dakota Relies on Rail to Deliver Its Crude
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/11/121130-north-dakota-oil-trains/
November 30, 2012
Crude oil take away capacity continues to be adequate with a majority of North Dakota’s oil now shipped by rail to east coast, gulf coast, and west coast destinations.
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/directorscut/directorscut-2013-03-15.pdf
3/15/2013