Prairie Public Broadcasting

Bakken formation promising -- but still a few years away BISMARCK, ND (NDPR) - North Dakota Mineral Resource director Lynn Helms says it'll be a decade before production in the Bakken formation will have a significant impact on oil and gas supplies and prices.

Helms testified at a hearing in Bismarck -- chaired by Senator Kent Conrad. He says the Bakken is the largest oil deposit in the lower 48 -- and that will mean lots of activity in North Dakota's oil patch for years. But he says it will be a while before that makes a difference in price and supply.

"To achieve those kind of levels, we're going to have to build more pipelines," said Helms. "We're going to have to build more natural gas processing plants. We'll need more electic generation and transmission. We know that to achieve those kinds of production levels, we need another 400 megawatts of electricity. And we need refining capacity."

Helms says using current technology, oil recovery is predicted to be one-and-a-half percent of the oil in the Bakken -- and in North Dakota, that means two billion barrels. But he says technology continues to evolve -- and he thinks companies will be able to do even more than that.


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