More Time Needed To Determine Amount Of Oil In N.D. Formations

Government scientists say it is too soon to say whether North Dakota's Bakken formation has more oil desposits than previously known.

 

 

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Government scientists say it is too soon to say whether North Dakota's Bakken formation has more oil desposits than previously known.

Oil industry officials say the Bakken and associated formations hold substantially more than oil companies previously estimated just two years ago and more than six times the amount in the most recent U.S. Geological Survey estimate.

Ron Ness from the North Dakota Petroleum Council said new technolgy will allow significantly larger amounts of the oil to be recovered.

"The best technology we have today, out of every 100 barrels, we get somewhere between three or seven of them out of the ground," said Ness. "When you think about that, the great minds of the future have a tremendous opportunity to just get five percent more of the oil out of that rock. That's billions of barrels."

Ness said that translates to decades of oil drilling.

Continental Oil said core samples it has taken below the Bakken and Three Forks formations show much larger oil deposits than expected.

(KFGO file photo)

 

Don Haney

   

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