Thursday Morning News, Links, And Views -- Part II

Update on North Dakota's Legacy Fund. TwinCities.com is reporting:

A savings account North Dakota created to preserve a portion of its oil and natural gas tax dollars for the future has exceeded growth estimates in its first two years and could swell to $3 billion by the time state lawmakers decide how to spend it.

State officials predicted the Legacy Fund would accumulate about $600 million by this summer. Through August, officials said, the fund has grown to $1.3 billion. It will continue building revenue until June 2017, when lawmakers are allowed under law to begin tapping the account for such things as education. 

“It is growing very fast. It's going to become much bigger,' Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple told Stateline in an interview. He said the fund added a record $92 million in July.

Maybe this would be a good time to ban flaring, shut down wells that are flaring gas, and let the projection catch up with reality. LOL.

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Photos of the Bakken: 20-photo slideshow -- pretty nice.  In The Fiscal Times. A reader from California who knows very little about the Bakken but is a very, very close, dear friend, sent me the link. I am impressed.  I love the 'Home of Economy' photograph.

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Labor fact of the day, from CarpeDiem: the six US metro areas with the lowest July jobless rates were near shale oil:  Crosby, Alamo, Fortuna, Williston, Watford City, and Dore. Just joking. The six at the link: Bismarck, Sioux Falls, Fargo, Midland (TX), Rapid City, and Billings. Pretty incredible, huh?

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The Bakken is a lot bigger than we thought. Previously reported. Being confirmed.

This is kind of an unusual story. It is nothing new for regular readers. It was first reported back in 2012. Apparently some folks in Dickinson are just now hearing the news. For others it is a nice recap/update of where we are.

For my 30-second soundbite and to make it easier to remember: the Bakken may hold a trillion barrels of oil, five percent of which may be recoverable.

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

Given a recoverable factor of 4 percent — which is how much oil Continental predicts will be able to be commercially produced — the 903 billion barrels would mean roughly 36 billion barrels of oil could ultimately be syphoned from Bakken reserves, according to data presented to Continental investors in October.

Though the estimates are not new, Stark said that 13 of a planned 20 test wells in the deep regions of the Three Forks — including testing zones in Dunn County — have been completed this year with several more scheduled to be finished before 2013’s end. Stark added that Continental isn’t the only oil and gas operator exploring deeper into the vast Bakken play.

“The database for the productivity and the incremental reserve additions that will come from the Three Forks is building daily,” Stark said. “This is a very significant addition to the play and we’re going to continue to assess what impact it ultimately has. What we initially thought was a two-layer reservoir rock is now looking like a five-layer reservoir.”

Essentially what it has found to date, Stark said, is the results from the completed test wells — which are dotted over a 3,800-square-mile swath of the Bakken — have proven to be hard evidence that there is more oil deep in the earth than what was previously thought. A lot more.

Best three words in the article: "a lot more."

By the way, four percent is lowballing the recovery rate.