4 Strong Companies In The Bakken Oil Play
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1754352-4-str...n-oil-play
Oct. 18, 2013 1:12 PM ET |
Includes: CLR , KOG , MRO , XOM
Exxon-Mobile Corporation ( XOM ), Marathon Oil ( MRO ), Kodiak Oil and Gas ( KOG ) and Conoco-Philips ( COP ) will all be profitable from the Bakken Oil Fields. All of these companies have excellent locations in productive oil fields and will produce oil profits for years.
U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean undiscovered volumes of 7.4 billion barrels of oil, 6.7 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas, and 0.53 billion barrels of natural gas liquids in the Bakken and Three Forks Formations in the Williston Basin Province of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
The United States Geological Survey (USGC), had estimated the Bakken oil reserves near 3.65 billion barrels of oil in 2008. New data from the U.S. Geological Survey from July 2013, estimate 7.4 billion barrels of (technically) recoverable oil. The USGS has a current estimate of 24 billion barrels of oil, and left room for huge increases of undiscovered oil in the 25,000 square miles covering multiple states and into Canada.
The Bakken Shale website estimates as much as 400 billion barrels of oil equivalent, (other estimates up to 900 billion barrels) in the Bakken play and four billion barrels of recoverable oil at this time only represents 1% of the oil estimated to be in place. General consensus is that 3-10% of the oil is recoverable. Regardless of the numbers, the oil play will continue for nearly 50 years and possibly extend with more finds and improved drilling and extraction developments. If we use the 24 billion barrels of recoverable oil and extract into the future 2 million barrels of oil a month average, we could expect to have oil for 1000 years. That is not including the increased technology to extract the other 90% of oil still there.
Continental Resources, ( CLR ) the Williston Basin's largest producer and one of the region's most active and experienced explorers, has all but officially declared a significant increase in the amount of oil it believes can be recovered from the massive Bakken petroleum system. Continental's recoverable calculation for the U.S. portion of the Bakken is based on a dated oil in-place estimate of 577 billion barrels of oil. Last year the company raised that in-place estimate to 903 billion barrels of oil without increasing the recovery estimate, leaving others to speculate based on whatever recovery rate they chose to apply. Continental has indicated that any change it makes to the current 24-billion barrels of oil recovery estimate likely would not come until at least the end of 2013, after it completes extensive productivity testing of the lower benches of the Three Forks formation. But the more successful these test results become, the bolder the company seems to get with its observations.
