Remember the buzz of the past few months about the Bakken formation in North Dakota that was said to contain 400-500 billion barrels of oil?
The U.S. Geological Survey says it's "a myth" according to CNS News.
A USGS report issued in April estimates that there are between 3 billion to 4.3 billion barrels of oil in what is referred to as "the Bakken Formation" -- well below the 400 billion barrels discussed on the Web, but up from the previous estimate of 151 million barrels made in 1995.
Richard Pollastro, Bakken Formation task leader at the USGS, said the myth stems from a 1999 draft report -- never published -- by a now-deceased USGS employee, Leigh Price. Price estimated that the Bakken Formation holds up to 400 billion barrels of oil. To put that in perspective, Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, has about 260 billion barrels of known oil reserves.
Price, however, died in 2000, before his study could be peer-reviewed and published, and the Bakken Formation became the fool's gold of the oil industry.
The article says the discrepancy comes from the fact that Price was trying to assess "oil generation potential" and from that trying to estimate "oil in place."
So the Bakken formation isn't going to make Saudi Arabia obsolete, but it's still a significant resource. For comparison, the most common estimate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is about 10 billion barrels, or enough oil to produce a million barrels a day for about 30 years. The Bakken formation is about 30% to 43% of that, which isn't bad.
If we're going to get gas prices down and achieve energy independence, we're going to need to start making much greater use of our domestic resources like ANWR and more offshore drilling.
Some nuclear power plants wouldn't hurt, either.
3 comments:
Disappointing, but emphasizes even more our need to open up ANWR, the offshore areas, and every other place environmentalists have managed to place off limits.
I think the American people have about had enough catering to tree huggers!
I don't know if anyone has taken the 300 billion barrel number seriously, I have not seen anyone banking on that number. Even 3-4 billion barrels is significant.
RD
http://www.bakkenstocks.com
The US consumes 22 Million barrels of oil per day, or about 8 Billion barrels per year. Thank about that and do some math.
ANS is well along the downside of their production slope. ANWAR's 3 to 4 Billion would supply our needs for 1/2 of a year! The PROVEN capacity of the Baakan formation is 3 to 4 Billion barrels.
Combine ANS, Baakan and ANWAR with coastal production from California and Florida and you'll get a total of perhaps 2 to 4 years of Oil, tops.
Folks, it's time we stop playing to multinational oil company profits and start SERIOUS moves to alternate, RENEWABLE energy sources, and that doesn't mean Ethanol, wind or water. And don't even talk about fusion unless you have a better solution to 10,000 years of radioactivity other than Yucca Flats.
It means Solar Power Towers.
We developed that technology at Barstow, California 20 years ago and proved it when a SPT pilot plant ran 24/7 for a month and generated a continuous 10MW of power. A year ago this March Spain, a member of the SPT project, turned the key on their first 60MW SPT project and plans to quickly expand it to 300MW.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Spain
http://rhlx01.rz.fht-esslingen.de/projects/alt_energy/sol_thermal/powertower.html
Post a Comment