Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x

[MHz]

From what I understand (repeat that first part in your head, it deserves to be stressed), Packers Plus has had a virtual monopoly on production equipment for fracking shale deposits for quite a while now. Recently other companies have moved in and are starting to work on these same techniques as well. They're not perfect, but they're pretty darn good.

You could well be right. Once they have an efficient process they don't actually have to do the 'mining' themselves, they can 'sell licenses' as a means of recovering their development expenses and provide for profits. Even better for them if theirs is the only viable means of extraction, they can charge what the market will bear.

 

[karrie]

You could well be right. Once they have an efficient process they don't actually have to do the 'mining' themselves, they can 'sell licenses' as a means of recovering their development expenses and provide for profits. Even better for them if theirs is the only viable means of extraction, they can charge what the market will bear.

just to clarify, the Bakken basin (at least in Sask) isn't mined it's drilled.

 

[EagleSmack]

Giddee up Eagle! You'll slant drill, fracture the zone, and we'll have rigs in position waiting to suck it up at your expense. lol.

Gaaa...well a geologist I am not. So basically what you are saying is that if we were to slant drill we just poked a hole in the membrane and our oil is pouring through the fracture into Canada. So to speak.

Touche.

 

[karrie]

Gaaa...well a geologist I am not. So basically what you are saying is that if we were to slant drill we just poked a hole in the membrane and our oil is pouring through the fracture into Canada. So to speak.

Touche.

Well, it wouldn't really pour into our side, but, if you're being a sneaky bugger and doing some pricey slant drilling into Canada, there's nothing saying we can't do some nice simple vertical drilling straight down into the zone you're about to start producing. :smile: All the expense to get it flowing would be yours, the bonus, ours. We may be nice, but we're not dumb. lol.

 

[EagleSmack]

When it comes to oil deposits here in the US it is far more easier and profitable for US Oil companies to drill and probably cap it like Norm said. The Oil companies are responsible to the shareholders and turning a profit on investment. The formula works well for them. Why invest so much money in pumping and selling every drop of US oil and be free of OPEC? Because it is cheaper to buy Arab oil than it is to pump our own. Whenever I hear of a new oil field I get that excitement up too.

"HooRayyyy! We can thumb our noses at OPEC!"

But alas...it never happens. OPEC decides and we pay. Exxon and the rest of them posted billions of dollars in profits, why would they change the formula. The oil will be there in a pinch and is an ace in the hole if OPEC tries to throw their weight around and effect the US Oil companies profit margin.

 

[EagleSmack]

Well, it wouldn't really pour into our side, but, if you're being a sneaky bugger and doing some pricey slant drilling into Canada, there's nothing saying we can't do some nice simple vertical drilling straight down into the zone you're about to start producing. :smile: All the expense to get it flowing would be yours, the bonus, ours. We may be nice, but we're not dumb. lol.

As you can tell I know absolutely NOTHING about drilling oil.

 

[karrie]

As you can tell I know absolutely NOTHING about drilling oil.

I know a bit. I've gotten to fiddle around with some of the production tools, get to see some of the ways they work, and get some of the explanations from hubby on the different geological formations, processes for producing them, etc. He's a certified petroleum engineering tech, who coincidentally was away a week ago, working on rigs in the Bakken formation.

 

[EagleSmack]

Ok then Karrie...with what you know of this deposit...is it really all they say it is? Could the US become independent of foreign oil if they choose to be with this find? Is it really the biggest strike since oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia?

 

[MHz]

Don't let the colours fool you. The oil fields are defined by the dotted line. On that anticline is where it's pooled.

Woof!

http://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/bakken-oil-formation/578
The Bakken Oil Formation
Saskatchewan is setting up to be a serious force in the Canadian oil industry. Underneath the south eastern section of Saskatchewan is part of the Bakken formation. The entire Bakken play lies underneath south eastern Saskatchewan, western Manitoba and North Dakota.
How much oil are we talking about here?
The United States Geological Survey has reported there's possibly 400 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken play. The area in southeastern Saskatchewan is estimated to hold up hold up to 25 billion barrels of oil.
And right now, things are really heating up. So far in 2007, land sales have brought in $250 million in revenue for the Canadian province. Oil companies are trying to grab as much land as possible.
A few months ago, the Alberta government raised their royalty rates considerably on oil sands production. Those royalty increases have been met with considerable resistance by producers. In other words, Saskatchewan may turn out to be a more attractive investment for some of those companies.
With record land sales in 2007, we can expect a massive amount of investment dollars to pour into the province. But don't think that Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only areas getting in on the action.

just to clarify, the Bakken basin (at least in Sask) isn't mined it's drilled.

Sorry, I thought we were still in Colorado, and over there it is mined. While verifying that I came across this link, lets hope they don't go this route. LOL

"The oil shale deposits of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming have more oil than all of the Middle East combined. The possibility of in situ processing by nuclear explosions (October AtE) is as yet untried, but the method would almost certainly yield slightly radioactive oil."
http://www.accesstoenergy.com/view/atearchive/s76a3668.htm

 

[karrie]

Ok then Karrie...with what you know of this deposit...is it really all they say it is? Could the US become independent of foreign oil if they choose to be with this find? Is it really the biggest strike since oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia?

I don't really know enough about the US side of it to be able to say for certain. But, from the businesses positioning themselves for the work, and for control of the drilling, I'd say it's obviously a major deal.

It's causing a population boom in Saskatchewan, which ought to tell you something.

 

[EagleSmack]

I don't really know enough about the US side of it to be able to say for certain. But, from the businesses positioning themselves for the work, and for control of the drilling, I'd say it's obviously a major deal.

It's causing a population boom in Saskatchewan, which ought to tell you something.

I thought the oil was located in the dotted line area? Sorry for being uneducated about this.

 

[Tonington]

Great Map Ton.

We are SO going to be horizontal drilling into Canada. ;-)

:smile: We better get our own Mr. Burns working on it here in Canada!

 

[MHz]

It's all well and fine to have some 'new' large deposits, their might even be more activity than just buying up the mineral rights. They could even drill lots of holes that would be more in line with actual production than just determining the quantity and quality. Just what plans are in place for moving it once they get it to the surface.
Nova doubled their production capabilities but their actual rate stayed just about the same. There wasn't a lack of product, there was, and still is, a lack of piping to ship the finished product. More lines going east are being shut down than are being built. So once the product from this untapped field is available for shipping where is it going to go?
The info about Nova is a few years old but I don't think the piping problem is over, any new piping seems to be headed south rather than east, which should take priority for Canadians.

 

[karrie]

I thought the oil was located in the dotted line area? Sorry for being uneducated about this.

No, the oil is in all of the shale. The map states that inside the dotted lines is the 'overpressured area'. I'd assume that to mean that it's where the oil has pooling and is thus freely available (not needing production to free it up and pull it out like in other areas), but I'm not certain. I'll have to ask hubby about it when he gets home.

 

[lone wolf]

No, the oil is in all of the shale. The map states that inside the dotted lines is the 'overpressured area'. I'd assume that to mean that it's where the oil has pooling and is thus freely available (not needing production to free it up and pull it out like in other areas), but I'm not certain. I'll have to ask hubby about it when he gets home.

Oops.... Mickey mouse chart I was looking at looked like the oil field. Light dotted line (upon clarification) indicates Williston Basin.

Woof!

 

[Trex]

America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.

In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951. The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel.

It was not until 2007, when EOG Resources of Texas started a frenzy when they drilled a single well in Parshal N.D. that is expected to yield 700,000 barrels of oil that real excitement and money started to flow in North Dakota. Marathon Oil is investing $1.5 billion and drilling 300 new wells in what is expected to be one of the greatest booms in Oil discovery since Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938.

The US imported about 14 million barrels of Oil per day in 2007 , which means US consumers sent about $340 Billion Dollars over seas building palaces in Dubai and propping up unfriendly regimes around the World, if 200 billion barrels of oil at $90 a barrel are recovered in the high plains the added wealth to the US economy would be $18 Trillion Dollars which would go a long way in stabilizing the US trade deficit and could cut the cost of oil in half in the long run.

Link

^
This is old, old news.

Everyone in the oil exploitation game has known about the Bakken for decades.
I drilled a multilateral Bakken well in North Dakota 18 years ago.
The bottom line is always the same: as the price of oil increases and improved production technology is introduced these old bypassed and overlooked reserviours
become potentially viable once again.
Thats all it is.
If oil hits $200/BBL you will hear about even more "New and Huge" discoverys.

Its all the expensive stuff and crumbs left behind that are becoming viable as the price increases.

Karrie has it pretty much spot on with her assesment of whats going on in the Bakken .

The formations are tight,low porosity with terrible effective permiability.
You need fairly long laterals or multilateral horizontal wells to start.
The improved packer hookups for doing stage frac's are really helping just like Karrie says.
I remember dropping balls down the pipe trying to plug the perfs and get a selective frac in the old days, things change and improve.
Having said all that multilaterals followed by complex completion and stimulation programs are expensive as hell.
But at $125 +/bbl it's looking good now.

The Bakken extends well under Sask so there is lots of acerage to drill on our side of the line.
The oil companies are busy picking it all over trying to find the " sweet spots".
Actually it's the "best of the worst" as it's a huge but crappy reseviour.

Trex

 

[L Gilbert]

lol So it costs a fortune to extract enough for half a fortune. That happened at the Tar Sands. Hopefully, by the time they they can figure out how to extract it cheaply enough to make it feasible, we'll have started using other sources of energy in a big way and make the extraction redundant.