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

[Hazcat]

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 Clarice Nassif Ransom 
Phone: 703-648-4299

David Ozman 
Phone: 720-244-4543

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

 
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/.

[Outlaw]

Hey Haz, I suppose this still doesn't mean gas will be .25 a gallon huh? 

[Hazcat]

Hey Haz, I suppose this still doesn't mean gas will be .25 a gallon huh? 

Only if we can get rid of all the 'greenies' who will try to stop us from drilling.

[FlyAndFight]

I'm curious to see what will happen with this information.   

Why do I have the feeling that we won't hear more about this until gas tops at least $5.00 and the profit margin is higher than it is now?...

[ericire12]

We should drill the sh*t out of it!

These left wing fools cry about us "going to war for oil", but they refuse to let us drill our own oil. How in the hell are they having it both ways?

There is no reason why we can't be energy independent in 5-10 years if we start tapping our own oil reserves. Then, you can focus on finding renewable energy sources. Our government is denying us our own resources and putting an unneeded strain on our economy.

I say, we should drill the sh*t out of it!

[Sponsor]

[addict]

And build a refinery right next to to wells. Gotta like the idea of energy independence!
Addict

[Pathfinder]

We have a refinery in Mandan, close by.

Besides, you guys weren't supposed to find out about this, it's ours, saving it for a rainy day. So mum's the word. Ya sure, you bet'cha. Eh?

 

[Rastus]

It's a dang tight shale (compared to sandstones and permeable limestones) and unless it's silicious produces very poorly.  So...for a well to work it's got to be deep enough to have pressure (1,000 psig +/-) to push it to the wellbore and a lot of sand in it to interconnect the porosity and fractures to produce.  So...if it's too shallow you'll have to mine the shale and break it up into pieces...which will provide superior recovery to wells.  At today's prices some of it should work. 

The Barnett shale down around Dallas is producing some oil.  You never know...it might work out.  But if it was really good, you've got to know we would have gotten our greedy hands on it and drilled it decades ago.  This is a poor source...exceptionally poor source of production...but that's where we are in the continental U.S. today.  Most of the easy stuff has been found....that's why billions are spent on single projects offshore when it's a lot safer, cheaper (more profit) and easier (more certain, less risk) to produce on land.

[tombogan03884]

We should drill the sh*t out of it!

These left wing fools cry about us "going to war for oil", but they refuse to let us drill our own oil. How in the hell are they having it both ways?

There is no reason why we can't be energy independent in 5-10 years if we start tapping our own oil reserves. Then, you can focus on finding renewable energy sources. Our government is denying us our own resources and putting an unneeded strain on our economy.

I say, we should drill the sh*t out of it!

By renewable energy do you mean like the off shore wind farm that Kennedy got stopped off Mass because it would interfere with his view?

[gunman1911]

I would not be surprised if they if not drill one drop of all that oil cause they are making to much money for themselves and their towel headed buddys. And as far as those tree huggers go they shoud see whats happing around my neck of the whats left of the woods.