SOURCE: Energy and Capital

April 15, 2008 10:19 ET

Bakken: The Biggest Oil Discovery in U.S. History

BALTIMORE, MD--(Marketwire - April 15, 2008) - The Bakken oil formation, which stretches across North Dakota, Montana and southeastern Saskatchewan, is suddenly drawing worldwide attention.

On Thursday, April 10, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published an official study on the massive Bakken reserve.

Among the agency's findings:

* Up to 4.3 billion barrels of oil could be recovered from the Bakken shale formation -- a 25-fold increase compared to its initial assessment in 1995.

* The Bakken is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS.

This comes after a 2006 report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which stated, "A study provides estimates ranging up to 503 billion barrels of potential resources in place."

According to the EIA, the success of horizontal drilling and fracturing efforts in Montana is the reason a decision was made to re-evaluate the 1995 USGS Assessment of Resources, which put estimates of technically recoverable oil from the Bakken Formation at only 151 million barrels.

The Bakken oil formation lies in the "Williston Basin," a geological formation in the north central U.S., underlying much of North Dakota, eastern Montana, northwestern South Dakota, and southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada.

According to Brian Hicks, Energy and Capital publisher and author of the soon-to-be released book, "Profit from the Peak," "The Bakken oil formation represents an unprecedented opportunity to get in on the ground-floor of a bona-fide oil boom."

To learn more about the oil rush occurring in Montana and North Dakota, click here or visit: http://www.energyandcapital.com/bakken/?id=5142

This report was filed by Keith Kohl, managing editor of the daily energy newsletter, Energy and Capital, and its web site: www.energyandcapital.com.