Flashback: September, 2010 -- Minot Daily News -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.

One year ago, data points:

• there are "no" dry holes in the Bakken (see below); it is not like the traditional oil play
• North Dakota is #3 in drilling; overtaking Oklahoma in late July, 2010, as the third-most active state for drilling
• 143 active rigs
• Helms: expected to see active drilling rigs to peak at about 165 -- "the absolute peak"
• Close to 20,000 people for 165 rigs
• he did not think 165 active rigs would be sustained
• 7,000 people had moved from out-of-state to North Dakota
• in Bottineau, they will eventually have 24 wells/square mile; down each section (one mile) of road, expect to see four drilling pads on the right and four drilling pads on the left, and every pad will have three wells (Spearfish formation, a sulfur-containing formation)
• Helms predicted a Bakken-style impact in the Souris area starting in 2012

With regard to my oft-stated "there are 'no' dry holes in the Bakken: From Lynn Helms, referring to a line through Parshall and Plaza: "Everything to the west line of drilling rigs that you see kind of running north and south through Parshall and Plaza everything west of that has a 99.9 percent probability of finding oil and 90-plus percent probability of making a 10 to 50 percent rate of return for its investors. And that's where they are focused."