More drilling

Governor Palin wasn't shy about mentioning Oil reserves in the Dakotas today at the McCain-Palin town hall meeting. And boy, is she right.

While Americans may associate North Dakota with wheat more than oil, that may change as the Bakken oil field, covering North Dakota, Montana and the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan, is shown to have accessible oil.

The Bakken oil reserve is a geological formation of oil-bearing rock in the north-central United States, which contains oil that has previously been inaccessible due to the type of rock containing it.

The amount of recoverable oil depends on the estimate; however, a United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates, using a geology-based assessment methodology, estimated it contains a significant oil deposit. The study found an undiscovered volume of 3.65 billion barrels of oil, 1.85 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas and 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids in Bakken. The potential has possibly made North Dakota an important oil region.

If the potential materializes, this could (depending on recovery factors) increase the estimate of recoverable crude oil resources in the United States by billions of barrels. The U.S. uses about 7 billion barrels of oil a year; consequently, North Dakota's share could represent a key oil supply.

What's the hold-up, Nancy? Let's get drilling.