The Majors in the Bakken? -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Some folks are waiting for the "majors" to come into the Bakken. I agree with them and know exactly what they are saying. Right now, we see projects in the millions of dollars (HAL's $60 million project, or whatever it was; WAWS at $150 million, was it?), but if the majors come in, we might be seeing $billion projects, or certainly $billion deals. CLR has almost a million acres; at $10,000/acre = a "one" with lots of zeroes behind it; CLR's market cap in a depressed market is $9.43 billion.

Right now, the majors have a toehold:

• Chesapeake is already here
• Burlington Resources is a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, the third largest integrated company in the world and the fifth largest refiner in the world
• XTO is a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the largest company in the US, by market cap (occasionally bested by AAPL)
• Dakota-3 is a subsidiary of Williams (WMB)
• Baker Hughes is putting in a "SuperSite" in Williston and two other locations (more on this story to follow)
• Halliburton and Schlumberger have huge presence in Williston; Schlumberger building new complex
• Weatherford is consolidating five (?) Williston locations into one location east of Williston