Oil Deposit Could Increase US Reserves 10x

The Bakken Formation, initially described by geologist J.W. Nordquist in 1953, is an immense blanket of rock from the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian age occupying a substantial part of the subsurface of the Williston Basin, Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan. Covering about 200,000 square miles (520,000 km²), Bakken serves as a significant oil reservoir, and until recently has long frustrated efforts to extract its oil, initially discovered in 1951.

The greatest Bakken oil production comes from Elm Coulee Oil Field, Richland County, Montana, where production began in 2000 and is expected to ultimately total 270 million barrels (43 million m³). In 2007, production from Elm Coulee averaged 53,000 barrels per day (8,400 m³/d) more than the entire state of Montana a few years ago.

New interest developed in 2007 when EOG Resources out of Houston, Texas reported that a single well it had drilled into an oil-rich layer of shale below Parshall, North Dakota is anticipated to produce 700,000 barrels (111,000 m³) of oil. Estimates for ultimate oil contained in the entire Bakken play range from 271 billion to 503 billion barrels (40–80 km³), with a mean of 413 billion barrels (65 km³) of technically recoverable and irrecoverable oil.

This massive estimate appears to dwarf the estimated 50-70 billion barrels (8-11 km³) of technically recoverable and irrecoverable oil in Alaska's North Slope. A conservative estimate of Bakken's technically recoverable oil would be 1% to 3%, or between 4.1 and 12.4 billion barrels (0.6-2 km³) of oil, due to the fact that Bakken's shale is so tight. However, other estimates range from 10% to as high as 50% technically recoverable reserves. By comparison, recoverable oil estimates in the Alaska formation are 30% to 50%, or a mean of 26 billion barrels (4 km³).

Not counting the Bakken Formation, there are about 175 billion barrels (28 km³) of technically recoverable oil in the United States, so the formation represents a substantial increase in U.S. reserves, which can be produced at an estimated cost of $20-40 a barrel.

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