Bakken shale how much oil

The updated North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3. Bakken drilling and completion activities at a well along Interstate, 6 miles east of Belfield, North Dakota. Oil-well pads dotting the landscape of typical badland topography. Thousands of new wells are drilled into the Bakken and Three Forks annually, making this one of the most productive plays in the Nation.

Skip to main content. Search Search. Apply Filter. What are the oil reserves in the Bakken Formation? The USGS provides estimates of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources that have yet to be found drilled , but if found, could be produced using currently available technology and industry practices. These estimates are based on knowledge about the geology of the area. In contrast, reserves are oil resources that are already discovered, What are some of the difficulties of drilling in the Bakken Formation?

Traditional oil fields extract oil from rocks with relatively high porosity and permeability, so the oil flows out fairly easily. In contrast, the Bakken Formation is a relatively tight formation with low porosity and low permeability rock, from which oil flows with difficulty.

To overcome this problem, wells in the Bakken Formation use a method What are "technically recoverable" oil and gas resources? This is regardless of any economic or accessibility considerations. For example, the technology required to produce oil from a location might exist, but it costs more than the oil is worth. The oil is still How much oil does the Bakken Formation produce and how does this compare to what the United States uses?

The USGS does not maintain statistics on oil production or oil consumption. Energy Information Administration provides information on oil Does the Bakken Formation contain more oil than Saudi Arabia?

Probably not. In , the USGS assessed undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas in Saudi Arabia at 87 billion barrels USGS World Petroleum Assessment compared to a mean estimate of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in the Bakken formation of 7. In addition, Saudi Arabia contains even more oil that has What are the environmental considerations of drilling for oil? With eight completion crews, there is no need for additional drilling or completion crews to maintain our volumes throughout the year.

Any additional activity would provide upside. US crude and condensate production reached The severe reduction in drilling and completion activity because of the pandemic, coupled with capital discipline, is requiring four years for production to reach pre-pandemic levels. Rigs and frac crews decreased significantly after the pandemic hit in March Also, despite better oil prices, several operators have maintained capital discipline and sidelined production growth.

However, there is high-side risk as it relates to private operators, which have increased rigs at a much faster rate than other operators and could accelerate their current growth trajectory, leading to production gains at a faster rate than currently forecast. Production in the play is expected to slowly grow as oil prices recover.

However, it is not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels in the next five years. The Covid outbreak and subsequent restrictions on economic activities further affected the oil and gas production in the Bakken. While other basins throughout the US have increased their rig count with commodity prices rising to pre-pandemic levels, the Bakken has lagged with its rig count. Lately, the number of rigs has started to slowly increase and has reached 16 rigs in June , which is just a six-rig increase compared to the lowest number recorded last year.