Hess To Triple Bakken Production by 2015 -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here. -- The link is finicky -- it's a Wall Street Journal article.

Hess Corp.'s oil production in North Dakota's prolific Bakken Shale will triple by 2015 as the oil company increases drilling activity in the area, Chief Executive John Hess said Wednesday.

Hess's net output, currently at 39,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, will reach 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent in 2012 and 120,000 barrels of oil equivalent in 2015, the executive said in an earnings call.

Hess, a large U.S. oil company with large offshore and international operations, has been aggressively expanding its presence in North American oil shale fields. In addition to the Bakken, the company has spent nearly $1 billion acquiring acreage in Ohio's Utica Shale, an emerging play; appraisal activity there will commence in the fourth quarter, Hess said.

These Utica acquisitions, as well as other purchases in the North Sea, account for a $1 billion increase in the company's forecast capital spending for 2011 to $7.2 billion, Hess said. 

It is interesting that Hess says it's Bakken shale production will triple by 2015: that's exactly what Lynn Helms is suggesting for the Bakken in general -- that North Dakota could triple its daily production by 2015. 

In early 2011 or late 2010, Harold Hamm, CLR/CEO, said he would triple the size of his company, Continental Resources, in five years.