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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x |
| 2008-03-28 |
| H/T Michael Ledeen The Corner 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 AmericaÂ’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPECÂ’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. |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #17 Oil companies sued each other when "Directional Drilling" was invented, claiming that their own oil pockets were being rustled. Use of horizontal drilling means that there will be a huge Oil Rush, and the State will create conditions where their tax revenues will expand. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-03-28 23:42 |
| #16 Down here in Texas, thanks to new and effective fracturing technology, the Barnet Shale is providing one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world that was almost impossible to get to before. Things are booming on the Barnett shale with the use of this technology. LINK: Cities are getting a lot of money and individuals are getting $3,000 and much more per month gas royalties. Just need to move the fracturing technoloy up north to the Dakotas. But you Rantburgers better get on the ball and buy up some Dakota land NOW. |
| Posted by: www 2008-03-28 22:42 |
| #15 ION, FREEREPUBLIC > RUSSIA TODAY - Russ Billionaire Roman Abramovich] intends to build [Germa firm]a massive UNDERWATER CHUNNEL between Russia and Alaska, potens to be the WORLD'S WIDEST + LONGEST??? RECALL > TOPIX/RIAN > RUSSIA + JAPAN TO FORM NUCLEAR ALLIANCE. ABRAMOVICH Chunnel idea is prob linked to 1990's idea for NORTH/NORTHEAST ASIA SPECIAL/FREE TRADE ECON ZONE [Russ, China, WCanada + propos ARCTIC Trade OverLand Routes]. MOST RECENT > PROPOSED IDEAS FOR NORTH ATLANTIC + NORTH PACIFIC SURFACE + UNDERWATER TUBE-CHUNNEL SYSTEMS BTWN USA + JAPAN-CHINA, N. EUROPE. *INTERFAX > MAYORS WANT A SEA FLOOR RAIL/TUNNEL SYSTEM BETWEEN TALININ AND HELSINKI. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-03-28 22:34 |
| #14 Phil_B, the Bakken Formation is a shale where it produced from fractures in a folded zone in the Antelope Field back when I was involved c. 1981. 10 billion barrels was the estimate of the amount of oil the Bakken could have generated as a source rock; presumably some fraction was already expelled to be produced from other reservoirs (or lost to the environment) and some fraction will be immovably retained within the shale, and some fraction may be recoverable from the shale, likely through horizontal wells through fractured zones or through retorting. I am not aware of how the 10 billion barrels in place has become 200 barrels recoverable. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-03-28 22:11 |
| #13 The Texas Railroad Commission essentially priced a barrel of oil to cost no more than a fifth of whiskey. West Texas Sweet Light Crude used to be the benchmark. I have no clue what it is now. The Soddies still have a bit of an advantage, it only costs them about six bits to produce a barrel of oil since they have no exploration or development costs and their wells don't have to be pumped. I'd love to see the price of oil crash, it would definitely put a twist in the knickers of those smarty pants in the ME and maybe, just maybe cut down on the revenue stream to the nutjob fanatics. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Texas 2008-03-28 22:08 |
| #12 Maybe we'll get to return to the wondrous days of yesteryear when the price of oil was set by the Texas Railroad Commission. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-03-28 20:43 |
| #11 BTW, this isn't oilshale. |
| Posted by: Phil_B 2008-03-28 20:27 |
| #10 Production is already shut in because there isn't pipeline capacity. |
| Posted by: Phil_B 2008-03-28 20:23 |
| #9 NET > IIRC, a US Company = USA? has claimed first rights/drilling rights to most or nearly all of another alleged MASSIVE OIL FIELD IN THE ARCTIC?, reportedly beating out both the RUSSIANS + EUROS, etc for legal rights??? ALso ION, CANADA = CANADIAN CITIES ARE INTERESTED IN ESTABLISHING A GREAT LAKES REGION ECONOMIC ZONE = FREE TRADE ZONE WID US COUNTERPARTS??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-03-28 18:47 |
| #8 Bakken's just one more oil shale. Been producing it for decades - just have to find (or make) fracture zones so the oil will come out fast enough to pay off the drill costs. Green River and other oil shales out in Utah & Colorado are generally similar. Several big research projects going on to try to find ways to make money producing it. Past efforts have been 'strip mining' it - which requires shallow deposits and makes a huge environmental mess. And it's not a lot more 'efficient' than corn ethanol in energy production vs. consumption to produce it. One breakthrough would be if we can work up a way to 'refine' the oil to some degree in the ground. Partial in situ combustion would heat the oil (and make it flow more easily) and maybe fracture the rock (giving the oil paths to flow through). Or maybe engineer a bacteria to reduce viscosity. Whatever develops, it will take a long time and a huge amount of capital. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-03-28 18:43 |
| #7 the middle east prob doesn't refine most of it's oil and i know n=venezuela doesn'tt so what's the prob |
| Posted by: sinse 2008-03-28 18:37 |
| #6 It is a long way from the rock to the pump. For instance, there is an immense coal deposit under the US as well, but US coal mining just nibbles around the edges. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-03-28 18:32 |
| #5 SPOD - Easy technical answers to your question - 1 - it's the midwest - prairies and pipelines wherever you want. 2 - The EPA and friends are another matter, as Capsu points out. |
| Posted by: Harcourt Jush7795 2008-03-28 17:51 |
| #4 All the CO2 in that oil will make plant's obese and wreck the economy. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-03-28 17:41 |
| #3 The oil is there, but there are technical issues in recovering it. Sooner or later technical problems will be overcome. This has the potential to crash the price of oil. I also ask myself how many similar technically difficult fields are out there. Wikipedia |
| Posted by: Phil_B 2008-03-28 17:38 |
| #2 That is great news but we need refined oil product. Where are the refineries to process this oil? This is a problem with several facets that need to be addressed. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2008-03-28 17:14 |
| #1 Nope, can't drill there either. That is the ancestoral mating land of the North Dakota red faced slug beetle. |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2008-03-28 17:12 |