Friday, Part II; Putting The Bakken Into Perspective -- June 12, 2015

Today's EIA "energy cookie":

Alaska's crude oil production has declined from 1.8 million barrels per day (MMb/d) in 1991 to 0.5 MMb/d in 2014, and it is expected to continue declining through 2040. Almost 75% of Alaska's crude oil production from 1990 to 2012 was from the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River fields in the central North Slope, which respectively produced 4.9 billion and 1.7 billion barrels of crude oil over this period. --- EIA

Less than 7 billion bbls.

The Bakken will produce at a minimum 0.07 x 500 billion = 35 billion bbls over the lifetime of the Bakken/Upper Three Forks. This number does not include the lower benches of Three Forks.

At one million bopd, that's about 35,000 days, or about 95 years. Leap years, which occur every four years, and add a day to the year, will affect the actual number of years. I often make simple arithmetic errors. Do not quote me on this. If you do, say this: "Some crazy nut says the Bakken will produce oil for 100 years." And then drop it. If this information is important to you, seek out a Gregorian calendar.

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Putting US Inflation Into Perspective

The Zimbabwe government, known for its adherence to the Pocahontas-Krugman school of economics, has a process in place to "fix things." Business Insider is reporting:

The process will expunge Zimbabwean notes from the country's banking system, which now includes a combination of US dollars, South African rands, and Botswana pulas, in an effort to move past the horrific episode of hyperinflation that occurred in 2008. While the official inflation figure during that time was recorded at 231,000,000%, others have suggested the actual inflation rate was greater than 4,000,000,000%. 

I thought they were quibbling between 400 and 231 (not a big difference) but then I counted the zeros. LOL.