Bakken Formation

The Bakken formation is part of the Williston basin, a geologic structure that extends from southern Montana and South Dakota up into Canada.  The Bakken formation is basically dolomite sandwiched between two layers of marine shale that act as a source and trap for oil and gas.  The formation is defined as a continuous oil accumulation  since the resources are spread out over a large area rather than in discrete deposits.  The entire Bakken formation is thought to contain as much as 500 billion barrels of oil, although estimates of how much is recoverable range from 3% to 50%. 

The USGS recently completed an assessment of the U.S. portion of the Bakken formation, which states that it contains over 3.6 billion barrels of oil and 1.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that are undiscovered and technically recoverable.  New enhanced oil recovery technologies would be expected to revise that upward significantly.

The Elm-Coulee field, first discovered in 2000, is just one of five assessment units in the Bakken formation.  It is thought to contain as much as 500 million barrels of recoverable oil using horizontal drilling and specialized production techniques.  Production from Elm-Coulee was about 53,000 barrels per day from 350 wells in 2006 and could have been higher but was limited by pipeline capacity.

Production in the Bakken formation has been increasing rapidly, doubling about every 18 months in the last 4 years.

Additional Bakken Resources

North Dakota Geological Survey

Diagenesis and Fracture Development

North Dakota Oil Production by Formation - 2007

North Dakota Oil Production by Formation - 2006

EOR in Williston Basin

New Oil Gusher

How Much Will it Help (contrarian view)