Re: Bakken: The Biggest Oil Find in U.S. History

If Bakken the biggest oil find in U.S. History? Zarathustra explains why deniers who point to Bakken as hope for the future may be be passing on nothing more than hype.

These posts are by Piccolo, a petroleum engineer working in the petroleum industry.
The Bakken Formation: How Much Will It Help?
Posted April 26, 2008
http://anz.theoildrum.com/pdf/theoildrum_3868.pdf

The Bakken Shale - Has it Moved the Oil Needle?
Posted Nov 2, 2009
http://canada.theoildrum.com/pdf/theoildrum_5928.pdf

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• peak
• oil
• bakken
• formation
• shale
• williston
• basin

[NeverShoutCharley]

I highly doubt that our lifestyle or economy will "diminish" as you say, because from what I know (and like you, Im going off tidbits i hear - the government is being very hush-hush about this) our government - while it may be able to supply most, if not all of our own oil - has agreed to continue trading and buying from other countries. Also, even if we are able to extract all of the available oil, they have found that it is NOT a fossil fuel that cant be recovered, but a bacteria. it reproduce

[zthustra]

@NeverShoutCharley

During WWI and WWII the government recognized the need for people to conserve and put the mass media to work educating the public. That is what is needed now. Jimmy Carter tried to do it. The money machine wants to keep making money until the very last drop has been extracted. Yes, we can make oil, but we can't make cheap and abundant oil. Thanks for commenting.

[NeverShoutCharley]

@zthustra Im not sure I follow you. Are you saying that the government should allow the media to tell the public of the oil? Because if thats the case, it will be the Industrial Revolution epidemic all over again. Everyone will rush up there in hopes for jobs, and there wont be places for them to stay. The Bakken area is a virtural ghost town. Also, oil extraction would be fairly cheap once the shale has been penetrated. That's the main problem, in my opinion. Stop me if im misunderstanding...

[zthustra]

@NeverShoutCharley

I think the government needs to use the media to tell the public to conserve energy and reduce material consumption. We need to reduce consumption dramatically to buy time to develop other energy options and extend the useful life of materials for future generations. As it is, the word is that we should just consume until we drop and we are robbing our future to live an excessive present.

[ZeekWolfe1]

4 billion barrels...I'm afraid this man is off by a factor of 100, maybe more.

[zthustra]

@ZeekWolfe1

From USGS Newsroom, released 4/10/2008:

Headline

3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montanas Bakken Formation ...

First line

Reston, VA - North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.

Do you have a better source of information than the US Geological Survey?

[NeverShoutCharley]

@zthustra Agreed completely. And these things should go farther then the media; it should go straight to the the government. Its what influences society more so then the media. If its made law, then people wont have a choice. If they're given the choice,they'll pick the easiest route with the most money as you say. Like on those poor ASPCA commercials, yeah people will feel sorry for those cute little animals, but how many people actually try to do something about it? Same concept there.

[4aSteadyStateEconomy]

@zthustra, You are dead right about the population problem. We have no demand benchmark, only mindless growth on a finite planet. People refuse to run the numbers, and many think a supernatural power won't let us get energy-poor. They have no way to prove that fantasy but they infuse it into public science policy.

P.S. Birds cheEp.

[4aSteadyStateEconomy]

@lordjared, the U.S. can burn well over 7 billion barrels of oil per year, so shale is a very weak supplement, especially for the amount of land ravaged and water wasted. It's a "substantial find" only in a small context. The flow rate of those 4.3 billion barrels will be a trickle over time.

Discoveries like "Multiple Exciton Generation" (super efficient solar cells) are what gives me some optimism. People clinging to fossil fuels as our savior are wasting valuable time.

[mike184ever1]

I THINK the next biggest oil find is another 30yrs away back in Saudi , so drive on exploit and create but dont forget to control the price of oil in US dollars and dont forget that US is the largest exporter of REFINED OIL ie gasoline and it controls the spec price of GAS and simple economics says "how much expendable cash will buyers pay for gas"

[dbporter]

babbling