How Big Could The Bakken Be?

I don't know if there's any correlation between Norway, it's oil revenue, and the Norwegian population, but it might be interesting to compare that data with what the Bakken might eventually mean to North Dakotans.

We can come back to the Bakken story at a later date.

But Rigzone is reporting that, "technically," every Norwegian (in the country of Norway, not in North Dakota) is now a millionaire. Every Norwegian. Here's the Reuters story:

Everyone in Norway became a theoretical crown millionaire on Wednesday in a milestone for the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund that has ballooned thanks to high oil and gas prices.

Set up in 1990, the fund owns around 1 percent of the world's stocks, as well as bonds and real estate from London to Boston, making the Nordic nation an exception when others are struggling under a mountain of debts.

A preliminary counter on the website of the central bank, which manages the fund, rose to 5.11 trillion crowns ($828.66 billion), fractionally more than a million times Norway's most recent official population estimate of 5,096,300. It was the first time it reached the equivalent of a million crowns each, central bank spokesman Thomas Sevang said.

Not that Norwegians will be able to access or spend the money, squirrelled away for a rainy day for them and future generations. Norway has resisted the temptation to splurge all the windfall since striking oil in the North Sea in 1969. Finance Minister Siv Jensen told Reuters the fund, called the Government Pension Fund Global, had helped iron out big, unpredictable swings in oil and gas prices. Norway is the world's number seven oil exporter.

Likewise, North Dakota has a "Legacy Fund" but unlike Norway, as I understand it, the state has chosen not to invest the oil royalty money in that account in equities. [Last year, equities gained 25% for most everyone invested in the market; some gained significantly more.] For more on North Dakota's "Legacy Fund," use the browser's search engine to search "Legacy Fund" at the blog.