Samson Oil & Gas to Drill a Bakken Formation Well in North Dakota and Pride International, Inc. to Host Analyst Meeting
Oil and Gas Exploration industry news provided by Financial News USA (OTC: FNWU). Samson Oil & Gas (AMEX: SSN) currently produces around 100 BOPD (gross) from a horizontal well placed in the Bluell Formation of the North Harstad oil field which is located in the central part of the Williston Basin. This well has been on production for 15 months and has demonstrated the productive capacity of this formation such that development wells adjacent to this location are being planned as part of Samson’s effort to enlarge its oil production profile to take advantage of the exceptional oil price that is currently in effect. In addition to this Bluell activity Samson has received a proposal from the operator of the field to drill a Bakken Formation well. This well is proposed to be drilled to a vertical depth of 11,335 feet, plugged back and then drilled horizontally for 4,800 feet in the middle Bakken zone. Read more
The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable… at $107 a barrel, we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.
* “When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.” says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s financial analyst.
* “This sizeable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years,” reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the “Bakken.” And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada. For years, U.S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the “Big Oil” companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves… and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL! That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight. To America, this discovery couldn’t have come at a better time. You see, when all the wells are finally drilled and pumping, we won’t have to import any foreign oil from the Middle East. Not a single drop! Read more
Bakken Formation: Will it fuel Canada’s oil industry?
It’s common knowledge that there is a lot of oil in the Western part of North America, but it’s difficult and expensive to get out of the ground. What may surprise some, though, is that much of that oil is under regions that aren’t known as major oil producers —Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North Dakota and Montana.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), there may be as many as 503 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken Formation – a natural geological phenomenon in the region – and estimates say that anywhere from three to 50 per cent of it is recoverable by currently available technology.
The Bakken Formation is a 350 million-year-old underground layer of rock that occurs in much of the Williston Basin, a vaguely heart-shaped warp in the otherwise flat prairies on the U.S.-Canada border. It was discovered in 1953 by a geologist named J.W. Nordquist and named after Henry Bakken, owner of the Montana farm where Nordquist first drilled.
While it was postulated as early as 1974 that the Bakken could contain vast amounts of petroleum, it wasn’t until Denver-based geologist Leigh Price undertook a field assessment for the USGS in 1995 that anybody tried to find out how much was actually there. Read more
Assessment of Undiscovered Oil Resources in the Devonian-Mississippian Bakken Formation, Williston Basin Province, Montana and North Dakota, 2008
Abstract
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean undiscovered volumes of 3.65 billion barrels of oil, 1.85 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas, and 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids in the Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin Province, Montana and North Dakota.
Introduction
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed an assessment of the undiscovered oil and associated gas resources of the Upper Devonian–Lower Mississippian Bakken Formation in the U.S. portion of the Williston Basin of Montana and North Dakota and within the Williston Basin Province (Figure 1). The assessment is based on geologic elements of a total petroleum system (TPS) that include: (1) source-rock distribution, thickness, organic richness, maturation, petroleum generation, and migration; (2) reservoir-rock type (conventional or continuous), distribution, and quality; and (3) character of traps and time of formation with respect to petroleum generation and migration. Detailed framework studies in stratigraphy and structural geology and the modeling of petroleum geochemistry, combined with historical exploration and production analyses, were used to aid in the estimation of the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and associated gas resources of the Bakken Formation in the United States. Using this framework, the USGS defined a Bakken-Lodgepole TPS and seven assessment units (AU) within the TPS. For the Bakken Formation, the undiscovered oil and associated gas resources within six of these assessment units were quantitatively estimated A conventional AU within the Lodgepole Formation was not assessed.. Read more
Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. Announces Agreement to Purchase Additional Bakken Acreage in Dunn County, North Dakota
Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (Amex: NOG – News; “Northern Oil”) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to purchase certain oil and gas leases covering approximately 24,000 net acres in Dunn County, North Dakota. With the addition of the Dunn County leasehold, Northern now holds approximately 60,000 net acres in the growing North Dakota Bakken trend.
“This acquisition materially increases our exposure to the North Dakota Bakken play,” said Michael Reger, Chief Executive of Northern Oil. “After beginning in Mountrail County, North Dakota, leading exploration companies continue to have significant Bakken exploration success to both the North and South. Read more
