Yes, North Dakota has Oil and Natural Gas! Montana and Canada as well. The Bakken Shale
formation is making residents of some counties in North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan, and parts of Manitoba Canada very rich.
How? Drilling Companies are knocking on the doors of landowners and buying their mineral rights.
What is the Bakken Shale oil field?
The
Bakken oil shale is a deposit of shale deep below the earths surface that contains oil. Oil shale is a sedimentary rock
that contains solid Kerogen materials that get released as liquids when the shale rock is heated. Oil Shale, like the
Bakken Shale play, was formed millions of years ago by deposits of organic debris or silt that formed in lake beds and sea
bottoms. Oil can be extracted out of the Bakken Shale formation area but the process is tricky and expensive since
the shale is a solid. The Bakken oil shale must be mined and heated at high temperatures. This is referred to
in the oil business as retorting. After the Bakken Shale is retorted, it is separated and collected. The Bakken
Shale formation can also be heated under the ground at high temperatures in which companies can pump the oil out of the ground.
Bakken Shale Facts & History
The Bakken Shale
is located in the Williston Basin Formation in northern United States of America. Many geologists have known about
the Bakken Shale oil field for a long time. The fact is, until recent years, oil prices remained low and our dependence
on oil has been even lower. This has made drilling for oil shale in the Bakken play look unattractive. During
the Spring and Summer of 2008, oil prices are pushed above $140 and many companies were arriving in North Dakota
as fast as they can in order to lease land from landowners to drill for oil. The recent economic woes have caused oil prices to fall hard and many companies are
pulling back their drilling operations. Oil supplies are huge both here in the USA and around the World. When
things start to improve in our economy, the Bakken Formation will be an active area once again!
How much
oil does the Bakken hold? While estimates are all over the place, I think that the Bakken Shale oil field may
hold between 3 - 5 billion barrels of recoverable oil. This could all change however, as the whole state of North Dakota
could be sitting on oil shale. There have been more then four thousand wells drilling in North Dakota with
the best spot being the Parshall Field in the city of Parshall. The State of Montana holds the best Bakken Shale location
called the Elm Coulee Field which located in Richland County, Montana. Geologists and drilling companies are also focusing on the Sanish/Three Forks region.
Bakken Natural Gas
There has also been natural gas released
from the shale fracturing in the Bakken Formation. Estimates have the Bakken Shale field hold a little less then 2 trillion
cubic feet.
For a much more indepth look at the Bakken Shale, including the Cities, Counties,
and companies involved in the drilling process, visit: http://www.oilshalegas.com/bakkenshale.html
