Three Forks Oil Formation in North Dakota Could Yield 2 Billion Barrels of Oil

Posted by Michael Hoven on May 5, 2010 at 12:35 pm

This map of Continental Resources drilling operations in North Dakota centers on the potentially massive Bakken and Three Forks shale formations. (image: contres.com)

New drilling technologies, such as the controversial method of hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking), have opened up vast resources of oil and natural gas once thought to be irretrievably locked in underground shale formations. The most notable example is the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from Tennessee to New York and could contain as much as 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, but in North Dakota the prize is not shale gas but shale oil.

North Dakota’s shale oil resources are found primarily in the Bakken and Three Forks formations. The Bakken could hold up to 169 billion barrels, but when it comes to recoverable oil the Three Forks shale may be just as productive, reported the Bismarck Tribune on Friday. A report from the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources estimated that 2 billion barrels of oil are recoverable from the Three Forks, the same number estimated to be recoverable from the Bakken. The number of recoverable barrels could increase as technology improves.

A representative from the Energy Information Administration cautioned that the new estimate does not add to the proven reserves held by the US, because the Three Forks potential remains unproven. Yet at least one inside source believes the estimate that the Bakken and Three Forks formations hold 4 billion recoverable barrels is too conservative. Harold Hamm, chairman and CEO of Continental Resources, Inc., which owns nearly half the wells working on the Three Forks formation, believes that North Dakota is sitting on 8 billion barrels of oil.

These preliminary estimates could one day lead to huge oil extraction projects in the Bakken and Three Forks region, but if that day does come, it is decades away. If the 4-billion-barrel estimate is even close to accurate, the reserves could contribute significantly and bring down oil prices. Despite the oil industry’s enthusiastic announcement of the oil finding, government approval, legal challenges and sophisticated construction requirements would likely delay any drilling for at least 10 years.