Flashback -- Poll -- In 2005, The Bakken Was Assessed To Have How Much Recoverable Oil?

Quick: back in 2005, the Bakken was assessed to have how much recoverable oil? Remember, North Dakota is currently producing slightly more than 1.2 million bbls of oil per day.

So, back in 2005, what was the assessment for total recoverable oil from the Bakken?

• 1.4 million bbls (one day of current production)
• 14 million bbls (10 days of current production)
• 140 million bbls (five months of current production)
• 1.4 billion bbls (did North Dakota even know how to spell "billion"?)
• 14 billion bbls (that's ridiculous)

The answer is below (the link will probably open a pdf on your desktop).

A Brief History of the Bakken: January, 2010.

Probably the most compelling evidence as to how changing exploration strategies and technologies are altering our perceptions of the oil and gas potential of the Williston Basin is found by comparing the technically recoverable reserves estimated by the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) in 2005 with those in the 2008 assessment (Bohrer et al.).

In 2005, the DMR estimated that just under 14 million barrels of oil were recoverable from the Bakken with the technology of that time. Three years later (2008), changing technology places the reserves at 2.089 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Even though the Bakken itself has not changed, our ability to extract oil from it has, so that as technology advances our ideas concerning the future possibilities of this resource must as well.

In 2013, the USGS' mean estimate was in excess of 7.4 million bbls of recoverable oil from the Bakken/Three Forks. The USGS is currently reassessing the Bakken/Three Forks.