Robert Hirsch On Gas Prices

[TheRadicalModerate]

Vaguely related to this discussion, take a look at this:

Yesterday, Bloomberg News published a story about some young oil developers and their rush to bring the Bakken oil formation, located in eastern Montana and western North Dakota, into major production.

The Bakken formation has been a minor producer of crude oil for over a half century. What has increased this formation’s potential is the arrival of mature horizontal drilling technology, now combined with water fractionating recovery techniques. These techniques could turn the Bakken formation from an inconsequential dud into perhaps the largest oil field on the planet.

How large? In an unpublished research paper he wrote while working as a geochemist at the U.S. Geological Survey, Mr. Leigh Price (who died in 2000) calculated a mean estimate of recoverable oil from Bakken at a stupendous 413 billion barrels. This compares to Saudi Arabia’s proven reserves of 267 billion barrels.

Many caveats, but interesting.

[Roger]

Worthy of more work. But those natural fractures, combined with low poroisty rock means production delcines very quickly.

January '91 say the first use of horizontal wells, and a spike in production, then decline.

More recent horizontal wells saw production jump from 3k to 70k+.

And the oil bearing rock is at best 150 ft thick. Perfect for horizontal wells.