Posted on 03/21/2008 6:02:12 AM PDT by Renfield
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 America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’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.
And in 31 days the enviro-whackos will find an endangered species living on the very spot where the oil companies want to drill.
because people will become curious as to why we are paying so much for gas.
What happens in North Dakota stays in North Dakota.
So are large reserves off the coastlines and in the Gulf. But is does little good (for Americans) as long as Congress refuses to allow drilling.
Thusly, other nations benefit from those off-coast reserves because they get to drill for that oil.
We always joked that if such a discovery was ever made, we'd better drill it quietly as an economic boom would throw a monkey-wrench into elitist plans to turn the state into a buffalo preserve.
Big deal. The RAts will never let anyone drill simply because it would be better for the country. Their re-election requires that they screw the country up as much a possible so that they can “save” it.
Hallelujah!!
I hope this story is true...
There are suppose to be a huge oil deposits in Colorado too.
North Dakota?!?
No more Coal for Oil!
Or something like that.
Shoot....what's to discuss? Sounds like a no-brainer.
yes, i actually heard a Democrat strategist say that it was good news for the Dems in this election year that the economy is slowing/in recession. couldn’t believe the journalist didn’t jump right on that.
Funny how oil is found along with new energy sources when the price is allowed to rise.
You're right, it's as sure as the sun coming up tomorrow.
Come to think of it, the last time I was in th Dakotas a few years ago I smooshed a bug on my windshield that I had never seen before. If his kind isn't given protection by the US government against greedy oil companies I'm sure the entire world ecology will collapse and humans will become extinct along with every other living creature.
...one day... prairie dog
If this was that viable an oil field, it would have been drilled for many years ago. Horizontal drilling works in some cases. But there’s lots of reasons why it has been largely abandoned and cost is just one.
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