Williston Basin Oil Reserves

An item circulates on the Internet from time to time about the recent find of immense oil reserves the United States has in the Williston Basin in North Dakota and parts of Montana and Canada. For the most part it is true, but:

It is not a recent phenomenon. Its been known a long time. When I worked at ARCO 25 years ago I managed a group of 50 to 60 computer analysts and programmers that developed programs for the reservoir engineers, geologists, and geophysicists. One of our major projects was the development of programs for the geophysicists to compile, reduce, and display 3-D seismic data of the sub-structure as three-dimensional graphic displays on the computer screen with the ability to rotate the displays, color saturate certain formation characteristics, etc. to aid in their interpretations. Also, one of our major projects was the 3-D substructure mapping of the Williston Basin. Yes, the oil is there in great abundance, but can you get it out? The Bakken is a dense shale. That's like having oil in a rock versus having it in a sponge like in the Middle East. You can squeeze and wring oil out of the sponge, but squeeze and wring as hard as you may on the rock you'll get very little oil out of it. In fact you'll wear blisters on your hands before you can extract so much as a drop or two. Newer technologies such as directional and horizontal drilling, tertiary recovery methods, fracturing, acidizing, and $100+ a barrel oil make the Bakken development more attractive. And then there are the ever present pesky, nosy, snoopy, demanding environmentalists and their ever willing accomplices, the liberals, with their blissful disdain for corporations, especially oil companies, doing anything that makes a profit, and then only so they can tax the hell out of them. So, why bother? Its cheaper and easier to pay the dictators of the Middle East big bucks ($$$$$$$) for the oil essential to help stoke the economic engine of our country, so they can spend big bucks ($$$$$) to force Islam and Sharia law on us.

Isn't it great!!!!