Insiders call it the �magic drug�… but it�s not a pill you swallow. It�s not something that your doctor will prescribe. It�s a special solution being injected right now into thousands of oil wells across America.
It frees up massive amounts of crude oil from deposits on dry land once thought to be inaccessible. While most investors don�t know anything about this extraordinary phenomenon, it�s filling the coffers of some little-known American oil companies with tons of cash.
It�s a big breakthrough for the nation�s oil industry.
As the Natural Resources Defense Council points out, it, �would give America access to large, domestic oil resources � potentially more than four times the proven U.S. reserves, or up to 10 full years of our total national consumption.� That�s a quadrupling of U.S. oil reserves.
Now here�s where the action is the hottest: The Bakken trend. This U.S. region lies in the giant Williston Basin and stretches across parts of the Dakotas, Montana, Manitoba and Saskatchewan…
In the 1990s, geochemist L.C. Price, working for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), compiled a stunning report on the Bakken trend. He concluded that it contained 200�500 billion barrels of oil. In 1999, he turned in his report to the USGS, but nothing happened. In 2000, Price died, but the USGS still had the report. The USGS refused to release it. Price�s story of Bakken was the province of oilmen telling stories in bars… until today.
It took the force of a North Dakota senator to press the USGS to take up where Price left off. But finally, the Bakken has the world�s attention. New work on the area confirms the essence of Price�s research, if not his 200�500 billion barrel estimate. Some 2006 estimates place 300 billion in North Dakota and Montana alone.
Also, geologist Julie LeFever, who worked with L.C. Price on his initial report, published a paper adding that additional barrels lie in various layers of the Bakken.
What does this mean for the smart oil and gas investor? Prospects of returns far better than anything you�ve ever heard of from the Canadian oil sands or Colorado�s shale.
�The Bakken formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states,� the report says �and is the largest �continuous� oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS.�
Who knows exactly how much oil lies beneath the Bakken? On April 10, 2008, the USGS issued a shot heard round the Bakken. Its newest estimation reveals a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered from the Bakken formation. North Dakota and Montana�s Bakken alone have an estimated 3�4.3 billion barrels of oil that could be recoverable with today�s �magic drug� technology. The Bakken has suddenly become one of the hottest crude oil plays in North America. Already, investors from Norway, the United Kingdom, France and Italy are in on the game. Private equity predicts Asian investors will be next…
Bakken, you see, is just that big. Predictions for peak daily production range from a healthy 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) to a whopping 700,000 bpd. That kind of production could last 10�15 years. Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico produces half what it did 10 years ago. The Bakken is the future of U.S. energy.
And there�s even bigger news… a new formation under the Bakken shale. Three Forks-Sanish could prove just as good as the Bakken. This is just what geologist Julie LeFever suggested back in �06. Three Forks� sand and porous rock could offer up 1.9 billion barrels of oil using current technology. At least that�s the latest number I have from North Dakota�s Industrial Commission. But Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources (a key player in the Three Forks) claims there could be as much as 8 billion barrels.
Getting oil and gas out of the Bakken has never been easier. Since just 2008, Bakken�s experienced drill teams have whittled down the time it takes to drill over two miles down into the shale. What once took 45 days now takes only 19.
Right now, the Bakken has put a record number of rigs to work. Things haven�t been this busy since 1981. About 6,000 wells produce in just the North Dakota Bakken alone. The region added over 1,000 new wells since 2008, when I first started covering this resource bonanza.
Early investors in shale oil and gas have made fortunes.
Take Range Resources, for instance, a company that locked down a lot of shale acreage early in the other big shale finds � the Barnett and Marcellus. It�s up 2,294% in the last 10 years.
Specifically in the Bakken formation, my readers cashed out on shale player Kodiak Oil & Gas for 113% gains.
So there is a ton of money to be made from this new technique. And if you take advantage of this tidal wave, it could make you wealthier than you�ve ever thought possible…
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