Bakken (U.S.) formation oil discovery - 4 billion barrels

deMolay · Intermediate Crude Joined: Sep 04, 2005 Posts: 907

Saskatchewan may be sitting on oil bonanza
Estimates peg latest find at up to 100 billion barrels of light crude
Bruce Johnstone, Regina Leader-Post; CanWest News Service
Published: 3:05 am
Saskatchewan could be sitting on 25 billion to 100 billion barrels of sweet, light crude oil in the Bakken formation in the southeast part of the province, according to industry and government estimates.

By comparison, the heavy oil resource in west-central Saskatchewan, which is considered to have the greatest potential for future production, is estimated at 25 billion barrels of oil in place.

The huge potential of the Bakken play has industry and government officials gushing with superlatives.

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Font:****"We're excited about it,'' said Ed Dancsok of Saskatchewan Energy and Resources. "It's probably the biggest oil find in Saskatchewan since the 1950s."

"The Bakken is the hottest play in Western Canada,'' said Trent Stangl, manager of marketing and investor relations for Crescent Point Energy Trust of Calgary, one of the top three players in the Bakken in Saskatchewan.

Gregg Smith, vice-president of Canadian operations for Petrobank Energy and Resources, another Calgary company that has a large land position in southeastern Sask., goes further. "It's fair to say, the Bakken play is the hottest play in North America,'' he said.

What has government and industry observers so excited is the sheer magnitude of the Bakken formation, which is found in the Williston Basin underlying much of North Dakota, eastern Montana, southeastern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba.

The Bakken is a geological formation of siltstone and sandstone about 300 metres below the Mississippian formation, where most Saskatchewan light oil production comes from. Bakken wells tend to be highly productive (200 barrels a day or more), producing sweet, light crude oil with 41 degree gravity, basically the highest grade of crude oil you can find anywhere.

While relatively new in Canada, Bakken exploration has been underway in the U.S. since 2000 and has increased dramatically in recent years. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bakken formation could contain a mind-boggling 413 billion barrels of oil in place.

Exactly how much of that Bakken oil in place is in Sask. is a matter of some conjecture.

Fifteen years ago, the then-department of energy and mines estimated there were roughly 100 billion barrels of oil in place in the Bakken formation throughout the entire Williston Basin.

Dancsok, who co-authored the 1991 study, said the prevailing view in the geoscience community at the time was that "the potential of the Bakken was immense, but the price of oil in 1991 was not such that people wanted to risk (exploration and development dollars).''

More recently, a North Dakota geologist reported that the Bakken formation could contain 200 billion barrels in the Williston Basin. Compared with the USGS report estimating more than 400 billion barrels in the Bakken, the earlier estimates of 100 billion to 200 billion barrels are seen as conservative.

Dancsok estimated roughly 25 per cent of the Williston Basin, which covers some 518,000 square kilometres, is located in Saskatchewan. Based on that simple arithmetic, the estimate of Bakken oil in the province could range from 25 billion barrels to 100 billion barrels of oil in place.

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Kylon · Expert Joined: Aug 12, 2005 Posts: 803

Hope this is right, and hope the U.S won't export the oil for the profits of a few multinational corporations and a bunch of uber wealthy people.

Instead the voters should tax them heavily, and throw any politicians who refuse to out of office.

deMolay · Intermediate Crude Joined: Sep 04, 2005 Posts: 907

It is fact, the rigs are rolling right now. The majority appears to be on the US side. This is bigger than Anwar is it not.

Tyler_JC

If you continue reading the article, they say that only 15% of this oil can be extracted with conventional techniques.

On the other hand, billions of dollars in R&D don't get spent on hookers and crack, some of it finds its way into actual research and development.

The geologists and engineers are going to be playing with that one for a long time.
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TheDude

We're already discussing Bakken in Ghawar field reserves decline overstated, survey says...and "Saskatchewan may be sitting on oil bonanza". Frickin' confusing, how about a metathread for all this Great Plains horizontal drill stuff, Tyler?
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Opies

I think it's best to keep in mind that conventional giant wells give at even a most conservative estimate somewhere around 20: 1 EROEI while these giant wells give at a most liberal estimate somewhere around 6 : 1 EROEI

On the opposite side of the spectrum you are looking at comparing 3 : 1 on p2/p3 to 30 : 1 on p1. Thats a 10fold decrease. Now even if, as unlikely as it is, a well like this one gets up to 2 or 3 mbd it would still be equated to only 200,000 - 300,000 barrels/day, or on the optimistic side of the spectrum, at most equated to 1mbd.

Also, best not to forget that sources like tar sands require insane amounts of NG and freshwater, only exacerbating current peak problems. I agree that sources like this can help to soften the fall, but they in no way will be able to prevent it, and if developed and used irresponsibly, could even worsen our current situation.

Chesire · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 13, 2007 Posts: 267

60 billion barrels recoverable sounds pretty decent . Would keep the USA running for quite sometime and let us get the f out of the ME.

Maybe the endgame plan is to deplete as much oil as possible outside of US control. Especially since there are fools who will trade tangible goods for dollars printed out of thin air. Then your trade deficit doesn't matter nor does national debt. Since you can simply say oil is 1000 a barrel in precious metals . Or you can deduct 10000 off the debt . Laughing

Twilight · Expert Joined: Mar 02, 2007 Posts: 3076 Location: UK

It's not decent enough, and it won't get the US out of the ME any more than a druggie can leave it at "just one more hit". There is no clever endgame plan either - private companies have no loyalty to anyone but themselves. Even shareholders can get stuffed sometimes. That's what NOCs are for. But yes, it is most amusing watching China invest its worthless dollars in securing natural resource streams from Africa in perpetuity.
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Oil-Finder

Until this article the only place I'd seen mention of the Bakken in the national media was an article in the Wall Street Journal in the spring of 2006. Maybe word is finally getting around.

A story like this in the NY Times (not even in the Business section), is, of course, going to take a human-interest angle on the phenomenon. But at least it's finally getting press.

New York Times article

*edited post, no need to add the link and then the whole article in large format here.*

AirlinePilot

Nordsven · Coal Joined: Aug 20, 2007 Posts: 9

I live in North Dakota and have land near the center of this formation.

The wells are drilled horizontally this technology is fairly new and is advancing, however the unfortunate reality of the situation is that although much of the oil is recoverable the rate at which the oil is recovered is limited in most locations. This is due to the porosity of the rock. They are working on new techniques to open up the rock by fraccing the oil well, however this has only proved to have limited success.

All this really means is that although theres alot of oil in this formation the rate at which the oil will be produced will hardly put a dent on any national supply/demand.

Interesting formation, however no real noticeble changes to that which is peak oil.

Oil-Finder

Blacksmith

With a horizontal well you are opening up a "large number of wells". The problem as I understand it, is the productive Bakken is thin and a horizontal well is difficult to control, so it becomes an engineering problem to open up an intense fracture system.
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The_sky_is_falling

Great, we have more CO2 to send up into the atmosphere!

PO is a major problem for human civilization but GW is a MAJOR problem for life on earth.
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