The U.S. Geological Service issued a report in April (‘08) that only scientists and oilmen knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn’t been updated since ‘95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota; western South Dakota; and extreme eastern Montana … check THIS out:
The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable… at $107 a barrel, we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.
“When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea,” says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s financial analyst.
“This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years,” reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the “Bakken.”
It stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada. For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the “Big Oil” companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves… and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels.
And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL! That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight!
And if THAT didn’t throw you on the floor, then this next one should – because it’s from TWO YEARS AGO, people!
U.S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
Stansberry Report Online – 4/20/2006
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world is more than 2 TRILLION barrels.
On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction.
They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth.
Here are the official estimates:
-8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
-18-times as much oil as Iraq
-21-times as much oil as Kuwait
-22-times as much oil as Iran
-500-times as much oil as Yemen
And it’s all right here in the Western United States!
HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this!?
Because the Democrats, Environmentalists and Left Wing Republicans have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil.
James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels. Untapped.
That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.
Don’t think “OPEC” will drop its price – even with this find? Think again! It’s all about the competitive marketplace, – it has to.
Got your attention/ire up yet? Hope so!
Now, while you’re thinking about it … and hopefully P.O’d, DO THIS:
Take 10 minutes and compose an e-mail; fax or good old-fashioned letter to all your friends and associates.
Alert them to the fact that Democrats and Liberal Republicans have been, and will continue to obstruct all plans to make America independent of foreign oil. The only solution is to vote all Democrats and Marxist oriented Republicans out of office!
If you don’t take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you want to complain about gas prices .. because by doing NOTHING, you’ve forfeited your right to complain!
9 responses so far ↓
Mr. Contrarian // September 15, 2008 at 1:18 am |
Hold on. That was a massive leap. You say “HOW can we NOT BE extracting this!?”, and then, without any evidence at all, you accuse the Democrats, environmentalists, and left-wing Republicans of blocking progress. Do I detect a little bias here?
Sean // September 15, 2008 at 3:35 am |
Ahh, so close. Yet untrue.
The Bakken Formation is, it’s true, a massively huge source of oil. However, it’s kept within hugely tight, difficult reservoirs. Extracting it would be hugely expensive to do, and the return on investment would be small.
Sorry, but it’s not Marxism to blame for the Bakken not being drilled. It’s good old fashioned capitalism.
If you can get the damn link to work, http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3868 has the details. If not, try looking for it on google, the cache is usually good.
abdulQahhar // September 15, 2008 at 4:22 am |
I suggest that the US Government is saving it – prudently – for the upcoming financial collapse and WWIII, when international trade ends.
wilco278 // September 15, 2008 at 9:16 am |
The Bakken formation is large in area, covering parts of three states and two Canadian provinces, although the technically recoverable volume is fairly low. Typical wells in the Bakken are flowing at around 1,000 bbl/day after significant well stimulation. The average US oil well in other areas flows at over twice that rate, and many wells on Alaska’s North Slope or the Gulf of Mexico flow at over 5,000 bbl/day. As Sean notes, the Bakken oil is in low-permeability fractured shale formations that are extremely difficult to produce. Low flow rates mean that many wells are needed to recover the oil, and the wells will run to depletion quickly without a lot of workover.
A number of companies are already producing from the formation, including Bronco, Hess, Slawson, ConocoPhillips, and Marathon Oil. North Dakota’s oil production is increasing as result of recent exploration activity in the Bakken. The latest numbers I’ve seen for North Dakota oil production are in the neighborhood of 150,000 bbl/day, which is causing pipeline problems because production is increasing faster than pipeline construction to carry the oil.
So yes, there is a large domestic oil resource, but it is very expensive to produce, can only be produced slowly, and the technically recoverable reserves are not that large.
Marie // September 17, 2008 at 2:28 pm |
Seems to me the reason it is not utilized has nothing to do with “liberal” Republicans or Democrats, but rather the fact that it would be so expensive to recover and produce, the oil companies don’t WANT to do anything about it.
Joey // October 29, 2008 at 10:13 pm |
even if the oil there is expensive and slow, it would have to be profitable to drill there. esp if oil gets back up to 120-130-140$+ right?
Charles M. Barnard // September 13, 2009 at 10:02 am |
“Expensive” “difficult” “return on investment”
All of these assume that: the price of oil remains about the same in real terms and that there are no major improvements in extraction techniques. Neither of these is likely. Prices are, in fact have been for some time, not determined by pure market forces, but by financial shell games, but even without them, as oil reserves decline, so prices will rise–changing the ROE and redefining “expensive.”
The fact is, we have vast areas of the planet where we haven’t even looked for oil…between BP’s Gulf of Mexico discoveries and the increase in projected extractable oil from these shale beds, our “known reserves” have increased by at least 1 trillion barrels over the past 2 years.
Why is the US not exploiting reserves within our country?
The reasons have more to do with politics than economics.
First and foremost, since we assume that fossil fuels are finite and non-renewable, it makes sense for ANY country to preserve as much of that resource as they can, barring extreme need for either oil or money.
The last ones to have oil to sell are in the best positions politically,economically and militarily. If you can, burn oil from other countries for as long as possible.
Economically, it permits us to purchase foreign oil more cheaply, since it is known that we do not, in fact, rely on it. (Remember, only about 20% of US oil consumption is foreign in origin.)
Environment is another issue, 50 years ago only biologists talked about environmental issues. Since then we have learned that there are limits to what we can mess up in our environment before we start suffering. (Since we’ve learned this same lesson at least a couple dozen times in the past 5,000 years, you’d think we’d catch on and remember it!)
While “liberals” conservatives, “Democrats” and “Republicans” are all handy labels we use to help orgnize their thoughts, they do not, in fact, exist as entities. Few Democrats are in full agreement with each other, as are few Republicans. The same goes for the other labels.
Economically, many of the countries we purchase oil from are also purchasing goods and services from us, in several cases, without the oil revenue, they would be unable to do so….
Danny Hoosline // October 29, 2009 at 2:36 pm |
My problem is I own Mineral rights in North Dakota and they are drilling Gas and Oil off of it but I am getting Nothing out of it, they are stealing
the Minerals out of the ground and not paying me not one red sent, its a shame they can’t pay me for this oil.
Ed Clemensen // November 7, 2009 at 10:09 am |
Many years ago, my maternal relitives were recieveing moneys for a capped well in Montana, then the payments stopped, it wasn’t really a big loss, about $8.29 per quarter, per person, yet Ibelieve that the reason was not liberals and “tree huggers” but like the insurance health insurance companies, the reason the payments stopped is because of the greed from the oil companies. On the other hand the oil companies should be made to drill their options in these areas under strick ecological conditions, before they are allowed to drill in areas like the Florida and California Coasts, where they don’t have options.