The Bakken Is An Oreo Cookie

And the Williston Basin may be a couple of Oreos stacked on top of each other.

I'm already behind this morning, so you can start on this article while I get caught up elsewhere.

Platts is reporting:

While shale and unconventional hydrocarbons are sometimes used interchangeably, geologically not all unconventionals are shales. For example, the Uinta Basin in Utah and many areas of the Permian Basin in West Texas are not shales, but are being developed unconventionally, geologists said.

Even the North Dakota’s Bakken Shale is a combo of shales and carbonates, said Jeff Hume, Vice Chairman of Strategic Initiatives for Continental Resources, which pioneered the giant play and is its biggest producer and acreage holder.

The Bakken “is like an Oreo cookie,” Hume said, with the Middle Bakken’s carbonates or dolomites sandwiched in between the black organic shales of the upper Bakken formation and the Lower Bakken. Below that is the Three Forks horizon, formed from carbonates.