Dakota Oil: Persia on the Plains / (why drilling Alaska should be "off the table")

[Blaze Diem]

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/SuperModels/DakotaOilPersiaOnThePlains.aspx
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Dakota oil: Persia on the Plains?
Energy finds in North Dakota and Pennsylvania, as well as Canada, could give investors cheap, low-risk -- albeit unconventional -- entries into oil and gas now, and handsome profits later.


Western North Dakota and western Pennsylvania, by which I mean the middle of nowhere, are on track to become the center of the universe for energy companies over the next few years as geologists, speculators and attorneys battle for control of two of the most important and unusual oil and gas finds of the past three decades...........


--------Let's start with western North Dakota, which some in the energy business are now calling Persia on the Plains.

Ramshackle wheat and alfalfa farms up there happen to lie atop the juiciest zone of the underground Bakken Formation, which stretches across 200,000 square miles of Montana and Saskatchewan as well. The heart of the Bakken, which contains three layers of shale that formed when the area was covered with relatively deep ocean, is about 2 miles down.

The rock was initially discovered as an oil source in the mid-1950s, but with extremely low porosity and permeability, it was impossible to exploit fully with conventional drilling techniques when oil was going for less than $50 a barrel.

--------Experts figure it will yield 270 million to 500 billion barrels of oil over its lifetime, which could make the roughly 60 billion barrels of oil of the famed North Slope of Alaska look like a child's mud puddle.

--------Northern Oil and Gas (NOG, news, msgs). Earlier this week, Northern Oil saw its shares shoot up 6% in a day after announcing its fifth discovery as a minority partner on a Bakken project -- in this case a well in the remote badlands of Dunn County, N.D., population 3,000. In a sure sign of boom times, that news was worth $15 million to shareholders before the well has produced any oil

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Notice the reference in the article as to EOG...it is the (ex) ENRON.
This is interesting as to anyone thinking about investments at the moment, and the fact that the article also mentions PETRO BANK on page 2.

Appears to be a feeding frenzy in regards to big corporate oil players and any little player with dreams of becoming much bigger.
I grew up in Western North Dakota. My family owns 1000 acres of beautiful farmland in the now famous DUNN COUNTY.
We are now in the third year (of 5) with our lease with a Texas oil co.
May just be an interesting year after all.
As I said, Bush's wet dream of Alaska drilling should now be considered "off the table". He has little reason to promote that mantra, no matter what political favors are owed to whomever.
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[bahrbearian]

1. Look for more pollution coming your way.

[Blaze Diem]

3. NO doubt. There goes the fresh clean air . It already stinks like Houston, Tx

I liked it the way it used to be.
They have moved in and changed it all..rebuilt quaint country roads and bridges to accommodate tankers and oilfield equipment. Peace and solace for people, birds, and animals alike has been changed forever.

I'm sure Haliburton is somewhere in the mix and certainly the corruption of the Bush crime family will have its filthy tentacles in the manipulation of State laws that currently protect the pristeen environment.
They're everywhere.

[Sherman A1]

2. Hmmm.........

A portion of the current price of oil is the falling value of the dollar... so one wonders just how economical it would be to go after this oil?

[Blaze Diem]

4. Not sure I grasp the entire meaning of that statement, but as they say

as long as ppb stays at $60, its feasible.