(Compiler's note: Good observations by a friend ....

This news release is from the US Geological Survey ....

While I am neither a geologist nor an oilman, I recognize the term “technically recoverable oil” may not equate to “proven reserves”, but I encourage you to take the time to go to the USGS website and go through the several excellent Powerpoint briefings that will show you the magnitude of this Formation. I also know that it may take time to get all the things done that must be accomplished to get this oil out of the ground. What I would like to see is for this Country to remove its head from a place the sun doesn’t shine and work together to bring this huge field and others into production or greater production quickly. Some of you remember the oil crisis in the early 1970’s. I received orders from the West Coast to the East Coast, and went to extremes to have fuel for my cross-country automobile trip. Our national response to that was short-lived, and we reverted to partisan bickering, amplified by well-meaning environmentalists. All of our elected representatives keep talking about working on a ‘comprehensive energy policy’. That is simply their term to hide their pet projects in a HUGE bill that would mean more government, but not necessarily more energy. I have sent my concerns to and received written responses from both of my senators here in Virginia. They both have very articulate staffs who wove their responses around their positive efforts to solve the energy issues with a ‘comprehensive energy policy’. My assessment of their responses is that Washington is the problem! America has abundant supplies of traditional energy and fine technical minds to offer alternative solutions. Turn the free market loose! Drill, drill, drill! )

News Release

April 10, 2008 Clarice Nassif Ransom 703-648-4299 cransom@usgs.gov David Ozman 720-244-4543 dozman@usgs.gov

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3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate—

Reston, VA - North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.

A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.

Technically recoverable oil resources are those producible using currently available technology and industry practices. USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources.

New geologic models applied to the Bakken Formation, advances in drilling and production technologies, and recent oil discoveries have resulted in these substantially larger technically recoverable oil volumes. About 105 million barrels of oil were produced from the Bakken Formation by the end of 2007.

The USGS Bakken study was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol as required by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 2000.

The Bakken Formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. A "continuous" oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences. The next largest "continuous" oil accumulation in the U.S. is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil.

"It is clear that the Bakken formation contains a significant amount of oil - the question is how much of that oil is recoverable using today's technology?" said Senator Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota. "To get an answer to this important question, I requested that the U.S. Geological Survey complete this study, which will provide an up-to-date estimate on the amount of technically recoverable oil resources in the Bakken Shale formation."

The USGS estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of 3.65 billion barrels. Scientists conducted detailed studies in stratigraphy and structural geology and the modeling of petroleum geochemistry. They also combined their findings with historical exploration and production analyses to determine the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil estimates.

USGS worked with the North Dakota Geological Survey, a number of petroleum industry companies and independents, universities and other experts to develop a geological understanding of the Bakken Formation. These groups provided critical information and feedback on geological and engineering concepts important to building the geologic and production models used in the assessment.

Five continuous assessment units (AU) were identified and assessed in the Bakken Formation of North Dakota and Montana - the Elm Coulee-Billings Nose AU, the Central Basin-Poplar Dome AU, the Nesson-Little Knife Structural AU, the Eastern Expulsion Threshold AU, and the Northwest Expulsion Threshold AU.

At the time of the assessment, a limited number of wells have produced oil from three of the assessments units in Central Basin-Poplar Dome, Eastern Expulsion Threshold, and Northwest Expulsion Threshold. The Elm Coulee oil field in Montana, discovered in 2000, has produced about 65 million barrels of the 105 million barrels of oil recovered from the Bakken Formation.

Results of the assessment can be found at http://energy.usgs.gov.

For a podcast interview with scientists about the Bakken Formation, listen to episode 38 of CoreCast at http://www.usgs.gov/corecast/.