3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in ND. and Montana

[parkerbink]

Why haven't we drilled this?

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911

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

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 http://energy.usgs.gov.

For a podcast interview with scientists about the Bakken Formation, listen to episode 38 of CoreCast at http://www.usgs.gov/corecast/.

USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information, visit www.usgs.gov.

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

**** www.usgs.gov ****

[Optimator]

The problem is not the volume of technically recoverable oil, it is the yield of the recovery process. It is a roll of the dice for someone to start drilling with no assurance as to the fraction of recoverable oil. Economic realities make this especially less appetizing in today's market as opposed to that of last year.

[joshh]

Because after we juice the shit out of other peoples oil, we can ask for a premium for ours.
Plus the way it's currently set up, the six remaining oil companies can adjust the market from their end all they want.

I love seeing all the tree huggers whine about holes in the ground though.

[nando]

that's easy. because we currently have too much oil and the economics don't support it. plus the tree huggers would be pissed.

Because after we juice the shit out of other peoples oil, we can ask for a premium for ours.
Plus the way it's currently set up, the six remaining oil companies can adjust the market from their end all they want.

I love seeing all the tree huggers whine about holes in the ground though.

six?

gazprom, china oil, statoil, total, bp, shell, cvx, occidental, murpy, those are just off the top of my head. pretty sure there are a lot more than six. ;)

[Aptyp]

Because after we juice the shit out of other peoples oil, we can ask for a premium for ours.

That has been the plan for many years. Pretty much any land where oil is found already belongs to oil companies. 22nd century it will be much different.

My only fear is, that with speed and technology that Saudi explore other energy sources, they may not even need oil. We'll depend on China and India.

[e30slut]

speaking of tree huggers, this one blonde chick was talking about oil companies and stuff
we asked why she walked and rode her bike rather than get a ride and she replied
"car use gas witch pollutes but even worse they get their gas from oil that the oil companies steal from earth."

so stealing from earth. co-worker replied "so since you're a vegetarian, go die and quit stealing from earth" I lmao

[mrsleeve]

The bakken field is nothing new, the tree huggers in and the politicians wont let Us drill our own oil out of the ground. this field is not extremely hard or expensive to recover with the new technology.

[mbonder]

Did anyone actually read the article:

"About 105 million barrels of oil were produced from the Bakken Formation by the end of 2007."

"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."


Looks to me like we are already drilling in this area based on those two statements. The drilling may not be a "balls to the wall" effort, but its not like its sitting there untapped.

[mrsleeve]

IIRC the fed have put a hold on all new leases and on new wells being put down. Yes they are pulling product outta that filed but its very very limited and small scale thanks to the statements above

Did anyone actually read the article:

"About 105 million barrels of oil were produced from the Bakken Formation by the end of 2007."

"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."


Looks to me like we are already drilling in this area based on those two statements. The drilling may not be a "balls to the wall" effort, but its not like its sitting there untapped.

[mbonder]

I could see that, I'm not trying to be one of those tree hugger types, just pointing out that originally it was believed that this field was a much smaller one than--only 151 million barrels according to the article. There has been over that amount pulled out since that time. There may have been less well leases given because of the belief that this area wouldn't amount to much, at least not back in the 90's with that current technology.

I don't know what laws were in place, but with the updated estimates there clearly needs to be some revisions.

[Massive Lee]

What about replacing unefficient cars and trucks with 40-50mpg turbo-diesel cars? The problem is not where to find crude oil, but why waste it in gazguzzlers...

[z31maniac]

What about replacing unefficient cars and trucks with 40-50mpg turbo-diesel cars? The problem is not where to find crude oil, but why waste it in gazguzzlers...

And some people will ask why you waste it driving around on a track?

[joshh]

What about replacing unefficient cars and trucks with 40-50mpg turbo-diesel cars? The problem is not where to find crude oil, but why waste it in gazguzzlers...

Only if they can be run on tree huggers.

[mrsleeve]

What about replacing unefficient cars and trucks with 40-50mpg turbo-diesel cars? The problem is not where to find crude oil, but why waste it in gazguzzlers...

for being a car guy you seem to have little to no understanding of them. You see here in the USA thanks to the EPA we cant have thoes hyper mileage cars thanks to the EPA. You see to get that kinda mileage you have to run very lean, than means very very high combustion temps, at those temps you get lots of Nitrogen fused with a bit of the excess O2 = NOx compounds that the EPA hates.

Thanks to the EPA regs on NOx compounds it had regulated Hyper mileage conventional powered cars form being sold here ( this is why no one here has really tried to develop the tech because you cant fuck with the laws of physics) This is why they all have been pushing the Hybrid tech.

Now yes BMW MERC and VW have gotten around that issue by adding a ton more emissions equipment that hampers the engine and make them tons more expensive. Also had to a NOx neutralizing system that injects Uera into the hot exhaust post 1st cat pre 2ed cat. This is just anther thing to go wrong and have to service an some thing to break and leave you stranded.


Drill here drill. That and you are Canadian you ought to be jumping for joy about oil production, HOW the fuck you think you guys have been paying for all that heath care you have. Little hint the Oil sands in Alberta

[Todd Black 88]

for being a car guy you seem to have little to no understanding of them. You see here in the USA thanks to the EPA we cant have thoes hyper mileage cars thanks to the EPA. You see to get that kinda mileage you have to run very lean, than means very very high combustion temps, at those temps you get lots of Nitrogen fused with a bit of the excess O2 = NOx compounds that the EPA hates.

Thanks to the EPA regs on NOx compounds it had regulated Hyper mileage conventional powered cars form being sold here ( this is why no one here has really tried to develop the tech because you fuck with the laws of physics) This is why they all have been pushing the Hybrid tech.

Now yes BMW MERC and VW have gotten around that issue by adding a ton more emissions equipment that hampers the engine and make them tons more expensive. Also had to a NOx neutralizing system that injects Uera into the hot exhaust post 1st cat pre 2ed cat. This is just anther thing to go wrong and have to service an some thing to break and leave you stranded.


Drill here drill. That and you are Canadian you ought to be jumping for joy about oil production, HOW the fuck you think you guys have been paying for all that heath care you have. Little hint the Oil sands in Alberta

You had me a believer, all the way untill the end.
We are taxed to death for our health care, and has NOTHING to do with the Alberta tar sands that only the last 10-15yrs have been producing any substantial oil product.