<DrumBeat: April 26, 2008 The Oil Drum If you think the oil situation is bad..>

118 comments on The Bakken Formation: How Much Will It Help?

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Gwydion on April 23, 2008 - 2:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

You know how the old saying goes: A gold mine is a hole in the ground with a liar on top. Something similar might be said for oil too. However, we've talked about this a bit previously on this site and up until now I've been pretty skeptical but now that I've read this I'm fairly impressed. Even if this does nothing for global supplies, or make a dent in the U.S. imports, this will be a boon for the economy of these states. Or rather, it will be a boon to the finances of those who lease the land the wells are on and the few people who are actively engaged in extracting and shipping the oil. Yet, translating mineral wealth into a diversified economy has always been a challenge for the western states.

*edit* Actually, now that I think about things in a more consumption sort of capacity, does anybody know if it would make gasoline locally cheaper for this area? If I remember correctly, ND is at the end of the distribution chain.

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july1406 on April 26, 2008 - 12:54pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Interesting guess that ND is at the end of supply chain/pipelines. Thought I would point out for the benefit of TOD readers, especially US readers, that ND, Montana etc... are more or less at the start of the big Cdn pipelines not so much at the end of the old gulf/SE lines.

The amazing thing about this, though, is that our Cdn lines do not actually serve our own industrial heartland in the east. All the Alta lines go into the US, mainly toward Chicago or over the mountains to the Pacific coast. We import almost all our oil in the East in tankers, plus a little Cdn offshore production.

Companies are actually starting to reverse some of the old gulf/WT lines to get "dilbit" synthetic crude to the hubs.
That leaves Eastern Canada with no SPR (yes, zero) and no local onshore production if you exclude Petrolia in Southern Ontario where the first wells were dug around 1850, before Titusville.

My GGGGrandfather is buried there (Oliver Simmons). His tombstone dated +/-1880 identifies him as a petroleum engineer. He was into refining/fractionating with Imperial. Needless to say, we're past our peak! We store vast gas there now in shallow dolomitized pinnacle reefs.

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118 comments on The Bakken Formation: How Much Will It Help?

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