OT: Aries, from what I have read on the government survey, they usually come in pretty conservative and do their calculations based on recoverable oil only on present technology.
I have spent a lot of time looking for stock plays on this whole situation and in my research, most of the seismic studies have the estimates anywhere from 100 to 300 times this estimate.
I think the encouraging thing is that this field has been identified since 1951, is currently producing (North Dakota is now the #9 state in oil production in the US) and with the advancement of horizontal drilling techniques, the future of the North Dakota/eastern Montana area will only grow brighter as things progress. The Canadian side of this basin is one of the most productive oil producing sites in all of Canada.
A number of areas of North Dakota are already reporting difficult times in attracting labor for non-oil related jobs due to the higher paying opportunities that abound in the oil field.
I just find this stuff fascinating as it is directly related to our every day life.
