Throughout recent years, the oil boom in Western North Dakota has changed the face of several area communities. As new potential within the Bakken begins to emerge, areas never before thought to be hubs for oil production are finding themselves in the path of development.

Dan Erdmann tells us how one county is trying to prepare.

“It’s been more than 150 years since prospectors headed West for the peak of America’s gold rush. Today, a black gold rush is growing in Bottineau County, and it won’t be long before oil prospectors head back East.”

“The oil development has been around for a long time, I mean, I think the first well was probably drilled back in the 50s and was called the Iverson Field, and that is in Western Bottineau County.”

Diane Olson is the Director of Economic Development for Bottineau County, and says its Western portions have long-been a common home for oil wells. Recent testing of the Bakken Shale Formation has provided new evidence that oil may be present in a much larger area of the county.”

“We’re hearing and seeing a lot of leasing of land and mineral rights up in this area, and told that as of February, we will actually see some drilling out in the Souris, North Dakota area.”

For the rest of the story visit, Oil Activity Spreading East

After reporting a solid 2009 fourth quarter, Hess set its sights on 2010 growth plans which included a major commitment to ramp up Bakken oil drilling in North Dakota. Fourth-quarter results suggest that Hess remains on track with growth projects underway on several continents to support targeted 3% average annual production growth.

Fourth-quarter 2009 earnings of $358 million were 5% higher than the preceding 2009 third quarter and well above the year-ago fourth-quarter loss of $74 million. Earnings gains at Hess’ E&P unit were more than enough to offset continued weakness on the downstream side. Higher oil prices helped boost fourth-quarter E&P earnings to $494 million, up 24% from the preceding third quarter. The weakened economy continued to dampen refining and marketing margins with fourth-quarter earnings of $17 million, down 56% from the third quarter. We were encouraged by Hess’ ability to grow full-year 2009 oil and gas production by 7% to 408 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), even after cutting capital spending by 33%. The firm reported proven reserves of 1,437 million barrels at year-end 2009, versus 1,430 million barrels at year-end 2008. Hess owes part of its 2009 production gains to startup of its 28%-owned Shenzi field in deepwater Gulf of Mexico in March.

For the rest of the story visit, Hess Moves Ahead with 2010 Plans

Surprised? I was, but it’s true! In decline since 1970, the American Petroleum Institute reported US oil production has now turned up, with October production of 5.36 million barrels per day, the most since 2005.  Even Exxon  is “coming home” with its proposed acquisition of XTO Energy — XTO has a large position in North Dakota Bakken Shale acreage.

The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in western South Dakota is wild, desolate, and beautiful! Three million acres of rolling prairies and buffalo, just as trappers and the first settlers saw it. Much of the surface soil here is shale, Pierre Shale. In the 1970’s I found 80 million year old ammonites exposed, right on the ground. The high clay content makes the soil poor for agriculture (probably why it was given to the Sioux Indians as a reservation in 1889). Due to surface exposure, the original oil and gas components here are long gone, but not so for the deeper shale and sandstones deposits to the north, where a bonanza in oil and gas has been found.

Further north (meaning North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan) oil production is skyrocketing. North Dakota may be sitting on one of the largest pools of oil in North America. Bakken Shale oil production alone may reach 500,000 barrels per day in 2011, up 50% from two years ago. And now, beneath the Bakken a new, apparently just as prolific, oil formation, called the Three Forks, is being explored. The Three Forks is rumored to contain just as much oil as the Bakken. Also, newly exploited to the northwest, in Canada, the Cardium formation is showing an abundance of oil. SA author Keith Schaefer has written extensively on the Cardium.

For the rest of the story visit, U.S. Oil Production Is Now Up

U.S. oil producer and refiner Hess Corp increased its 2010 capital spending plans by 22 percent, devoting $1 billion more to production alone and reversing much of the reduction made this year.

Hess said on Monday its 2010 capital and exploratory budget would be $3.9 billion, with $2.4 billion for production, $600 million for developments and $850 million for exploration.

“We are fortunate to have a strong portfolio of attractive investment opportunities,” Chief Executive John Hess said in a statement, adding he expected to fund 2010 spending from internally generated cash flow.

Hess had set aside $3.2 billion for 2009 capital spending, down sharply from $4.4 billion the previous year.

In 2010, production expenditures will go toward projects, including North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, where Hess will boost its rig count to eight next year from three now, and projects in Equatorial Guinea, the Gulf of Mexico, Britain and Norway.

For the rest of the story visit, Hess boosts capex for 2010, focus on production

It`s an exciting time in North Dakota oil.

Because there`s a formation - the Three-Forks - that rigs are just beginning to drill into.

“They think it`s even larger than the Bakken,” says Dr. Frank Moseley, Associate Professor of Energy Economics and Finance at Minot State University.

And the Three-Forks could double the amount of oil North Dakota will produce in the upcoming decades.

“There`s probably another 2-4 billion barrels recoverable from the Three-Forks,” says Lynn Helms, North Dakota`s Director of Mineral Resources.

For the rest of the story visit, Energy Insider: New ND Oil Formations

BISMARCK, N.D. - A crude-bearing cache known as the Birdbear, beneath North Dakota’s already booming oil patch, can be tapped using new technology that would expand horizontal drilling to parts of the state that have never seen it, geologists believe.

The Birdbear is a thin oil formation , only a few feet , locked within muddy limestone and dolomite more than 2 miles underground, immediately beneath the rich Bakken shale and Three Forks-Sanish formations in North Dakota, said Julie LeFever, a geologist with the state Geological Survey in Grand Forks.

“If the Bakken and Three Forks don’t work out, here’s another target,” LeFever said.

Denver-based Whiting Petroleum Corp. already has about 50 horizontal wells aimed at the Birdbear in Billings and Golden Valley counties in southwestern North Dakota, said John Kelso, a company spokesman. The wells there produce up to 400 barrels daily, compared with the company’s Bakken or Three Forks wells that can top 2,000 barrels daily, he said.

Kelso called the Birdbear an important but tertiary target for his company, which has more than 600,000 acres leased for oil exploration in North Dakota.

For the rest of the story visit, Another new oil formation for North Dakota?

Oklahoma billionaire Harold Hamm is rushing back into the North Dakota Bakken with an ambitious new drilling program after pulling back from the oil shale just a year ago.

Like most drillers operating in North Dakota, Hamm’s Continental Resources slashed spending and drilling plans when oil prices plummeted amid the financial crisis. But with oil prices rebounding, Hamm announced Thursday that Continental Resources would increase next year’s capital expenditure budget to $650 million and expects to have 23 drilling rigs deployed by the middle of next year. The company’s 2009 plans had called for $390 million of capital expenditures and finishing the year with six rigs operating.

Most of Hamm’s new spending is focused on the Bakken Shale, a 200,000-square-mile stretch of Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan. The Bakken was just about worthless to oil drillers in the past, but horizontal and fractional drilling techniques have now made the area more economical. Some have even called the Bakken the largest onshore oil discovery in the U.S. in decades.

For the rest of the story visit, Billionaire Harold Hamm’s New Oil Play

Marcus Levings can see gas flares across the western horizon from his front porch on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, where energy companies are drilling into the rich Bakken shale formation, one of the largest domestic oil and gas discoveries in the last 30 years.

But the night sky remains dark on the reservation, said Levings, who is chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes — the Mandan, Arikara and Hidatsa peoples.

A maze of bureaucratic delays and legal entanglements has kept the 11,000-member community from realizing much of its potential as an energy producer, Levings told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee yesterday. Consequently, an estimated 4 billion barrels of oil reserves remain out of reach.

“The light to the west stretches across the horizon,” said Levings, who is also a board member of the Denver-based Council of Energy Resource Tribes. “My elders see this day in and day out, but they say ‘Chairman, I signed my lease … but I’m never going to see royalties, I’m going to die before I see royalties.’ That’s our frustration.”

For the rest of the story visit, Tribal leaders urge energy policy reforms for Indian country