Thread: Black Gold in the Black Hills?

Shhhhhh....

We want to use up their stuff first and then sell our stuff at $300/barrel to the rest of the world.

Originally Posted by gunnut

Shhhhhh....

We want to use up their stuff first and then sell our stuff at $300/barrel to the rest of the world.

Y'know....I always figured that was the plan all along .

Another article. Keep in mind that estimates vary from 20 billion to 500 billion barrels and estimates of what's recoverable at market cost range from 3% to 50%.

Bakken oil formation has industry gushing

Bruce Johnstone
Saskatchewan News Network

Monday, December 10, 2007

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 great potential for future production, is estimated to be 25 billion barrels of oil in place.

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

"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 with a large land position in southeastern Saskatchewan, goes one further. "It's fair to say, the Bakken play is the hottest play in North America," Smith 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 Saskatchewan is a matter of some conjecture.

Fifteen years ago, the then-department of Energy and Mines estimated there was roughly 100 billion barrels of oil 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 "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)."

Dancsok estimated roughly 25 per cent of the Williston Basin, which covers some 200,000 square miles (518,000 square kilometres) is located in Saskatchewan. Based on that simple arithmetic, the estimate of Bakken oil in the province could range anywhere from 25 billion barrels to 100 billion barrels of oil in place.

Of course, geology isn't that simple.

"Whether the Bakken is evenly distributed throughout the basin is one question," Dancsok said. "It is deeper in North Dakota. But is the distribution of Bakken oil equal in Saskatchewan to North Dakota or Montana? That's a big question mark."

Smith says it's difficult to estimate how much oil is in the Bakken formation in Saskatchewan, but suggests that three to four billion barrels of oil could be in place in the area (22 townships) where Petrobank and other companies, like Crescent Point and Tristar, are active.

"This is very much a resource play," Smith said. "There will be other Bakken discoveries. This play will expand."
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007

That's what I call cheering news!

Start buying shares.. now

Ok i just have to say this...

there's (black)gold in them thar hills.

That's the best thing I've heard all week

Being a neighbour of Saskatchewan, and having many many "oil patch" companies based in this area, and lots of friends in the business, the amount of work going on in Saskatchewan right now is a bit of a tip off...........Saskatchewan needs the boost also

Well I look forward to seeing the results of all of their effort

I have a Black Hills Gold ring! Probably not worth as much as the black gold though!

Originally Posted by dalem

Oh boy I hope this is true -


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.

Try and force me to put corn in my gas tank if OilTopia is right next door.

What's the worst that could happen - we spend the money to develop it and then OPEC undercuts by hacking prices to those of yesteryear? That's a subsidy I can stand.

-dale

Let's see if I can recall my lesson from college on this one. Knew for quite some time it was there, article says since 1951 - well OK can't recall the year so let's go with that. Something about Native Americans, drilling rights, landscape, quality of oil.......hmmm......brain is mushy.