Bakken Formation
Article provides facts about untapped oil reserves in the Bakken Formation?
Claim: Article provides information about untapped oil reserves in the Bakken formation.
MIXTURE OF TRUE AND FALSE INFORMATION
Example: [Collected via e-mail, May 2008]
Just poking around the Internet recently, I simply “Googled” the search “Untapped U.S. Oil Reserves,” and the result (like the current price of a gallon of gas – BLEW ME AWAY! Go ahead, take a minute and see for youself! Never mind, I’ll share some of the highlights I found.
1. Ever heard of the Bakken Formation? GOOGLE it. I did, and again, BLEW my mind. The U.S. Geological Service issued a report in
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
“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 sizeable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past
known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the “Bakken.” And 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
2. 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
o 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
o 18 times as much oil as Iraq
o 21 times as much oil as Kuwait
o 22 times as much oil as Iran
o 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 we’ve not DEMANDED Legislation to come out of Washington allowing its extraction,
that’s why!
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
Don’t think “Big Oil” will drop its price – even with this find? Think again! It’s all about the competitive marketplace, and if they can extract it (here) for less, they can afford to sell it for less – and if they DON’T, others will. It will come down – it has to.
Got your attention fired up yet? Hope so! Now, while you’re thinking about it … and hopefully P.O’d, do this:
3. Take 5-10 minutes and compose an
Variations: A March 2011 version morphed the 2008
Origins: This item about untapped oil reserves in the Bakken formation (which lies within portions of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana) appears to have been taken from a
A November 2006 report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) stated that:
With new horizontal drilling and completion technology taken into account, the technically recoverable resource base for the entire Bakken Formation is potentially much larger. A draft study by the late organic geochemist Leigh Price provides estimates ranging from 271 to
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released its assessment of undiscovered oil resources in the Bakken formation in
A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released 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 estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of
North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to
Certainly 3.65 billion barrels of recoverable oil is nothing to sneeze at, but a little perspective is in order. The U.S. currently imports an average of about
As for the second part of the article, a 2005 study co-authored by James T. Bartis for the RAND Corporation (a nonprofit research organization) noted that estimates had placed upper range of shale oil resources to be found within the Green River Formation range of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming at between 1.5 and
“No work has been done on the impacts of development and ways to mitigate those impacts,” he said. For example, shale development requires large expenditures of water and energy, produces air pollution and carbon emissions and leaves toxic byproducts that could endanger the environment.
But development of the resource hinges on overcoming economic, technical and environmental obstacles, Bartis said.
According to news accounts, although new drilling techniques have greatly increased oil production in Bakken formation in recent years, as of February 2011 that region was still yielding less than half a million barrels per day.
Last updated: 10 March 2011
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Fahey, Jonathan. “New Techniques Open Up New Fields.” Detroit Free Press. 12 February 2011 Fialka, John J. “Wildcat Producer Sparks Oil Boom on Montana Plains.” The Wall Street Journal. 5 April 2006. Raabe, Steve “Study: Western U.S. Oil-Shale Reserves May Offer Relief in 20 Years.” The Denver Post. 2 September 2005.