New Survey of Non-Bakken Recoverable OIl in the Williston Basin Requested -- North Dakota, USA

The USGS accomplished two surveys in the Williston Basin in 2008.

• One survey was of the Bakken pool.
• The other survey was of the non-Bakken pool. 

The results:

• The Bakken survey, 2008: 3 to 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil
• The non-Bakken survey, 2008: 200 million barrels of recoverable oil

Today it is being reported that US Senator Hoeven of North Dakota is asking for the USGS to re-accomplish that non-Bakken survey of the Williston Basin.

The  USGS in its 1995 survey estimated there was 150 million bbls of recoverable oil in the Williston Basin (I am not sure if that included or did not include the Bakken pool; that was before the 2000-Bakken boom that began in Elm Coulee, Montana).

Regardless, thirteen (13) years later, in the 2008 USGS survey of the non-Bakken formations in the Williston basin, the USGS estimated there were 200 million bbls of recoverable oil in non-Bakken Williston oil basin.

The estimates between 1995 and 2008 were not all that different -- they were certainly within the same ballpark as estimates go in the oil industry. It's hard to believe that after thirteen years of new technology (particularly hydraulic fracking) and thirteen years of new data (core samples, seismic data), the estimates between 1995 and 2008 were so similar.

The recent excitement in the Tyler formation alone suggests a new survey is needed. But before the survey is accomplished, let's see a few new Tyler wells with new technology. That might help the USGS surveyors. Also, maybe we should wait to see what the Canadian drillers can do with the Bottineau County Spearfish wells.