A lot of oil in our soil

Several months back, one of the infamous Forbes brothers was a guest on a news program. The host of the program asked Mr. Forbes, "how much oil does the U.S. have in the ground". Forbes' answer blew me away. He said, "more than all the Middle East put together. The U.S. Geological Service issued a report on exactly how much oil was in the western 2/3 of North Dakota, western South Dakota, and extreme east Montana. I wish they would get around to issuing one on how much we have right here in the Golden Triangle/Rocky Mountain Front. That said, the U.S. Geological report says "the Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil". The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil can be recovered, (5 billion barrels at perhaps $107 a barrel), we're talking a resource base worth more than $5.3 TRILLION! The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that "this sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years"!  For years, U.S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the "Big Oil" companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. With recent technological breakthroughs (fracking), the Bakken's massive reserves have been busted open and we now have access of up to 500 million barrels. And don't forget the Bakken stretches from Northern Montana (that's us!) through North Dakota and into Canada. I believe that there is more oil HERE than Jed Clampett had on his property in the Beverly Hillbillies! Too bad we don't have Elly May also but that's a story for another day, another blog. Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. We have more oil inside our borders than all the other proven reserves on earth. Estimates say 8 times as much as Saudi Arabia, 18 times as much as Iraq, 21 times as much as Kuwait, 22 times as much as Iran, and 500 times as much as Yemen and it's all right here in the Western United States. A lead researcher says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East, more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. According to the Denver Post, that's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today. My feeling is that we're sitting on a virtual "gold mine" (black gold, Texas tea) right here in north central Montana. And DIG this, Dave Cruz from Cruz Construction has started a division in North Dakota and he says they have moved more rigs in the last 6 months in North Dakota than Cruz Consgtruction moved in Alaska in the last 6 years. They may be "rockin' the Bakken" but we're getting ready to "Frack the Front"! Jump-back-Jack, we're getting ready to frack!