Take the Bakken. Papa shows EOG's 580,000-acre position on a map, largely concentrated in Burke and Mountrail counties in North Dakota and Roosevelt County in Montana. He then highlights a much larger area about 100 square miles extending south and west to a diagonal line demarking the Bakken subcrop. Papa believes this unproven acreage is saturated with oil in the Bakken and Three Forks formations and will ultimately prove productive. "It's a very, very large area," he says.
Current oil production in North Dakota stands at 300,000 barrels per day, compared with 100,000 barrels per day before discovery of the Bakken. In five years, the output is expected to exceed 500,000 per day.
"So in one particular state in one particular play, production will have jumped by 400,000 barrels per day, just due to the Bakken shale."
As a result, North Dakota has surpassed Louisiana as the fourth largest oil-producing state. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation and carries a budget surplus even during these flagging economic times. "I submit that the reason is primarily due to the Bakken shale and its development. It has really changed the picture for the state of North Dakota. This is what happens when you develop an unconventional resource with horizontal drilling."
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