Get ready for a dang good mad!

[festus]

Our Govt knew it wes there and did not exploit this resource! Instead THEY chose to let us suffer at the pumps. Tell all your bubbas and let every single tax paying citizen know that we should all be hopping screaming pissed!


3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate—
Released: 4/10/2008 2:25:36 PM
Contact Information:
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communication
119 National Center
Reston, VA 20192 Geology Energy Program 1-click interview
Phone: N/A

Reston, VA - 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.

A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, 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.

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3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Oil in North Dakota and Montana

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Technically recoverable oil resources are those producible using currently available technology and industry practices. USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources.

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.

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 U.S. is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil.

"It is clear that the Bakken formation contains a significant amount of oil - the question is how much of that oil is recoverable using today's technology?" said Senator Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota. "To get an answer to this important question, I requested that the U.S. Geological Survey complete this study, which will provide an up-to-date estimate on the amount of technically recoverable oil resources in the Bakken Shale formation."

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.

Results of the assessment can be found at USGS Energy Resources Program, USGS-ERP.

For a podcast interview with scientists about the Bakken Formation, listen to episode 38 of CoreCast at U.S. Geological Survey: USGS CoreCast.

USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information, visit Welcome to the USGS - U.S. Geological Survey.

Subscribe to USGS News Releases via our electronic mailing list or RSS feed.

**** Welcome to the USGS - U.S. Geological Survey ****

Links and contacts within this release are valid at the time of publication.

[HK4U]

I do not believe there is a shortage or ever has been. It is a contrived crisis. Everyone should read the book by Lindsey Williams entitled The Energy Non-Crisis. Control the oil and control the people. For those of you that hate the C world. Sorry.

The Energy Non-Crisis by Lindsey Williams

[Austin]

OPEC is the problem

And the way that our gooberment bows to them

[wolfhunter]

I do not believe there is a shortage or ever has been. It is a contrived crisis. Everyone should read the book by Lindsey Williams entitled The Energy Non-Crisis. Control the oil and control the people. For those of you that hate the C world. Sorry.

The Energy Non-Crisis by Lindsey Williams

The Energy Non-Crisis

[Red Hat]

I don't believe there has been a legitimate crisis either. Crude Oil may be a renewable resource. These articles make sense.

Federal Triangle: Petroleum?A Renewable Resource? - Archives - Industrial Heating

RENEWABLE CRUDE

There are reports of dry oil wells filling back up also.

Oil Fields Are Refilling...Naturally - Sometimes Rapidly There Are More Oil Seeps Than All The Tankers On Earth

Oil Reserves Are Increasing by George Crispin

[gdcleanfun]

I do not believe, either, that there was a shortage of oil/gasoline in the early 1970s. It's all for politics and $$$.

[toreskha]

Our domestic oil industry is still dominated by capitalist mechanisms. The oil companies know about Bakken, as well as most other easily accessible sources of oil. If they see a profit motive in exploiting those resources, they'll do so. Otherwise, they won't. Unless the area in question is a protected wildlife area, then the government has no role in the matter.

Furthermore, the government does not have much, and should not have any role in setting prices. The oil companies should be able to charge whatever they want, regardless of the size of their much-vilified profit margins.

[playsinjetfuel]

Well the truth is the government does have to much control over oil and from what I here, correct me if I am wrong, but there is more oil in the crude shell in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming than in the middle east but the government won't let them mine for it but thats what I herd!

[wolfhunter]

Our domestic oil industry is still dominated by capitalist mechanisms. The oil companies know about Bakken, as well as most other easily accessible sources of oil. If they see a profit motive in exploiting those resources, they'll do so. Otherwise, they won't. Unless the area in question is a protected wildlife area, then the government has no role in the matter.

Furthermore, the government does not have much, and should not have any role in setting prices. The oil companies should be able to charge whatever they want, regardless of the size of their much-vilified profit margins.

The problem is the tree-hugging, human-caused global warming alarmists think oil in the states IS in protected areas, and push to restrict access to it. That's why the estimate in the OP was based on computer models.

It's Catch 22. They might be allowed to access this oil, if they can PROVE the quantity of oil and the reliability (safety of the environment) of the equipment; but actually using the equipment and tapping the oil pocket is the only way to do so, since the environmentalists either claim the models are set up using biased data, or any risk is understated.

[toreskha]

The problem is the tree-hugging, human-caused global warming alarmists think oil in the states IS in protected areas, and push to restrict access to it. That's why the estimate in the OP was based on computer models.

It's Catch 22. They might be allowed to access this oil, if they can PROVE the quantity of oil and the reliability (safety of the environment) of the equipment; but actually using the equipment and tapping the oil pocket is the only way to do so, since the environmentalists either claim the models are set up using biased data, or any risk is understated.

It seems highly unlikely that Greenpeace and some minor paperwork problems are going to create a serious obstacle to a ruthlessly efficient and motivated group of multi-billion dollar multinational corporations. Money moves mountains. The oil industry has great piles of money and huge teams of lawyers and lobbyists. If they seriously want to exploit a natural resource to suck the petroleum out, they're going to do it, come hell or high water. If it comes to it, they can just bankroll whatever key House and Senate campaigns they need to make it happen, or bribe people, or whatever.

There's no concern in my mind that an economically feasible way of producing oil is going untouched, because it's to their advantage to find the fastest and cheapest way to pump crude out and refine it. If they can do it affordably, they'll do it - if not, they'll avoid it.

The oil companies are apparently really good at doing what they do, because they've been doing it reliably for a long time and have overcome tremendous obstacles in making sure that the oil keeps flowing. They're happy to do it, as long as the money keeps rolling in. There is absolutely 0% chance they're going to miss a shot at making a buck.

Would you want the Exxon Board of Directors to give you advice on how to shoot or clean your gun? Let's stop trying to tell them how to do their job, and just work on figuring out what kind of cars we're going to drive in the long term. Electric is looking awfully good, and they have great value in a SHTF situation.