I just paid $42 to fill up my car, as I damned the pump. It used to cost me $15.
Sure, U.S. oil production has been spiraling downward for the last 40 years. But there's one area that's just starting to heat up, one that could boost our oil reserves 10 times over. No joke.
We're talking about the opportunity to meet all U.S. oil needs for the next two decades. That's huge.
Think about that. What if we could reduce our dependency on foreign oil? The Middle East would lose its marbles.
The Next Oil Boom Is Upon Us.. in the Bakken Oil Formation
Locals call it "The Bakken." It's a behemoth oil reserve stretching across North Dakota, Montana and southeastern Saskatchewan... a reserve so massive it contains 10 times more barrels of oil than Alaska's North Slope. Keith Kohl has been telling you about this for months in his Bakken Oil Formation report.
While the U.S. Geological Survey has reported the Bakken Formation could hold more than 400 billion barrels of recoverable oil, a new report offering an accurate assessment of the Bakken Formation will be released over the next 30 days, finishing the work started by scientist Leigh Price.
Price had estimated that the Bakken Formation held as many as 900 billion barrels of oil, but died before the work could be published or reviewed. Some pegged it at close to 200 billion to 300 billion, with others calling for more than 400 billion.
Until recent years, the technology simply wasn't available to economically extract the oil from the Bakken shales, making product efforts overwhelming. But with breakthrough techniques such as horizontal drilling, the full potential of the Bakken play can now be developed. And it's well worth it given high oil prices and technological advancements.
The Boom Oil Year Ahead in North Dakota
Thar's black gold in them thar hills... This time in North Dakota. And as we mentioned above, the discovery could be significant. Unlike Northern Canada's oil sands, the Bakken's oil can be extracted relatively cheap, without the use of energy intensive processes.
That news alone means North Dakota could be headed for a boom oil year.
In January 2008 alone, the North Dakota Oil and Gas Division issued 90 permits to drill. At that pace, the number of permits could double those of last year, and "be near the record 1,098 issued in 1981," according to reports.
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