U.S. Oil Reserves

About the Bakken Formation
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911

http://www.usgs.gov/faq/list_faq_by_...er.asp?id=1028
Does the Bakken formation contain more oil than Saudi Arabia?
However, the estimate of technically recoverable oil in the Bakken Formation is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS.

A "continuous" oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences, such as those in conventional accumulations. The next largest "continuous" oil accumulation in the U.S is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil. For information concerning undiscovered oil and gas in Saudi Arabia, from the USGS 2000 World Petroleum Assessment, please see http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/WEcont/regions/reg2/r2saud.pdf.

http://www.usgs.gov/faq/list_faq_by_...er.asp?id=1024
Question: Is it true that the USGS released a report that states 3 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil assessed in North Dakota and Montana's Bakken Formation - - 25 times more than 1995 estimate? Answer:
Yes, this information is true. The report was released in April 2008 and can be found online at http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3021/.
For additional information go to: http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/oilgas/noga/ (choose Williston/Bakken in the interactive map to see all available documents).

Always interested when they say "technically recoverable". This phrase should always raise the questions:
What is the per barrel cost to technically recover this oil?, and
what is the cost for this oil in terms of energy recovered compared to energy used to recover? (e.g. is it 30:1 like Saudi oil, 5:1 like tar sands, or 1.1:1 like corn ethanol)

The USGS FAQs on the Bakken tell a more complete story at:http://www.usgs.gov/faq/list_faq_by_...category_id=94

For additional analysis of the issues related to the Bakken formation you may also want to take a look at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3868
with some conclusions consistent with the USGS FAQs..

For a great overview of the world oil situation take a look at:http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3726

Also, here is an interesting recent article related to world oil production.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...618911,00.html

One factor in total production of a field is how well you manage it. Pump too much or too fast the field produces less than its potential

"Oil Reserves" are all relative. From the USGS FAQ:

Quote:

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USGS Frequently Asked Questions
Question: How much oil does the Bakken Formation produce and how does this compare to what the United States uses?

Answer:
In 2007, the Bakken Formation produced approximately 26 million barrels of oil. Approximately 7,548 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products were consumed in the United States that year (Energy Information Administration estimate at http://www.eia.doe.gov/).

For additional information go to: http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/oilgas/noga/ (choose Williston/Bakken in the interactive map to see all available documents).

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This is the USGS projected un discoverd petroleum. They have to do a lot of drilling to confirm the numbers. Until then it is a guessing game that could be wildly off the mark.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zeus3925

This is the USGS projected un discoverd petroleum. They have to do a lot of drilling to confirm the numbers. Until then it is a guessing game that could be wildly off the mark.

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Of course that could be in either direction.........;-)

In the Mining world there were 3 levels of Ore Deposits - Proven, Probable & Possible.

Proven meant the deposit was outlined on all 4 sides & was generally taxed accordingly. Because of taxes our normal proven reserves were a 1 year or less supply of Ore.

Probable meant it was outined on 2 sides & was not taxed at the higher rate, if at all.

Possible meant there was a core drill sample indicating an ore zone, & was not taxed.

I would imagine the Oil suppliers are much in the same boat, trying to keep their taxation down, so they maintain reserves at a lower level. I would believe with the expertise available in the world of commercial Oil that they probably know much better what they are doing than a bunch of desk jockeys & internet spielers. ;)