The "Next North Dakota": Five States About To Go (Oil) Boom

The Fiscal Times is reporting:

The black-gold rush in North Dakota—a technological revolution in oil production—is creating a new class of rugged millionaires. North Dakota might be grabbing headlines, but horizontal drilling and “fracking” to tap into newly accessible oil reserves is by no means limited to that state. 

The shale revolution is still in its “early innings,” as a recent report by Credit Suisse put it. OPEC’s 2013 World Oil Outlook, published last month, said that new oil supply from the U.S. and Canada would hit nearly 5 million barrels a day within five years, up from last year’s forecast of 1.7 million barrels a day by 2018. As that boom plays out, tens of billions of dollars in new infrastructure and development will likely be invested in the coming years.

Where will the new investment be concentrated? Though oil and gas companies across the U.S. are busy buying up acres of mineral rights in oil shale hot spots in an effort to be early players in the next booms, most are staying quiet about early production numbers.  

If they let on that they’ve uncovered another Bakken or Eagle Ford Shale, land and production costs could skyrocket. In Texas’s Eagle Ford, for example, companies were paying $250 to $450 an acre in 2009 when the area’s potential was unknown, but by 2011, an acre was going for $21,000 to $22,000.

I doubt there is much in the article that regular readers don't already know. My 30-second sound bite on the five states:

Texas: the numbers are going to be huge, but will not have the impact on Texas that the Bakken had on North Dakota -- for many reasons. Investing? One word: EOG.

Oklahoma: Investing? One word: CLR.

Louisiana: Don't know much about shale story in Louisiana but Tuscaloosa Marine Shale is the "new kid" on the block. It's linked at the sidebar at the right. Another new shale play in Louisiana: Smackover Brown Dense Shale.

Colorado: two words -- environmentalists and disappointing. In my mind the Niobrara has yet to "prove" itself.

California: not even on my radar scope. If Ogalalla was the rallying cry in Nebraska for activist environmentalist that stopped the Keystone, fracking will be the rallying cry in California for activist environmentalists to stop the practice. The crazy geology in California will make two-mile horizontals in North Dakota look like child's play.

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