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87-676: The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated in 2014 that the 1,750 square mile Monterey Formation could, as an unconventional resource, yield about 600 million barrels of oil, from tight oil contained in the formation, down sharply from their 2011 estimate of a potential 15.4 billion barrels. An independent review by the California Council on Science and Technology found both of these estimates to be "highly uncertain." Despite intense industry efforts, there has been little success to date (2013) in producing Monterey-hosted tight oil/shale oil, except in places where it

174-608: A Canadian geoscientist and Fellow of Post Carbon Institute , published a report in December 2013 analyzing the assumptions behind the EIA's forecast of Monterey tight oil production and the USC's forecast of resulting job and tax revenue growth. He found the EIA report's assumptions on prospective well productivity to be "extremely optimistic," and the total estimate of 15.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil "highly overstated." He also found

261-552: A boom in Bakken oil production since 2000. By the end of 2010, oil production rates had reached 458,000 barrels (72,800 m ) per day, thereby outstripping the pipeline capacity to ship oil out of the Bakken. There is some controversy over the safety of shipping this crude oil by rail due to its volatility. This was illustrated by the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster , in which a unit train carrying 77 tank cars full of highly volatile Bakken oil through Quebec from North Dakota to

348-698: A lot of discussion around the Monterey Shale that it doesn't require fracking, that acidizing will be enough to open up the rock," said Chris Faulkner, chief executive officer of Breitling Oil and Gas. The Monterey Formation underlies the southern half of the San Joaquin Valley , a prime agricultural region. The possibility of environmental damage has caused some farmers in Kern County to press for close regulation of hydraulic fracturing. Opponents say that hydraulic fracturing poses risks in

435-479: A mean of 3.65 billion. Later that month, the state of North Dakota's report estimated that of the 167 billion barrels (26.6 billion cubic metres) of oil in place in the North Dakota portion of the Bakken, 2.1 billion barrels (330 million cubic metres) were technically recoverable with current technology. In 2011, a senior manager at Continental Resources Inc. (CLR) declared that the "Bakken play in

522-688: A model operator and applicant during the proceedings. Based on the Paleobiology Database: Based on Fierstine et al (2012) and the Paleobiology Database. A majority of these are preserved in diatomite , with many, especially the most complete ones, recovered from a diatomaceous earth mine at Lompoc . Based on the Paleobiology Database: Based on the Paleobiology Database: The Monterey Formation contains some of

609-463: A perception that men will not be prosecuted for assaulting them”. Author Lily Cohen also writes about this issue saying that “Native women face increased levels of sexual assault, sex trafficking, and other gender based violence when resource extraction projects are located near Native communities”. The trauma that is caused by the increased violent crime stemming from these man camps can also remain within these communities for generations. There has been

696-514: A portion of the Bakken region, found that the practices in the region can result in many environmental harms. The fracking which occurs can result in the harm and displacement of vital habitat for native plants and animals. Fracking in the region can also result in ground and water pollution from spilled oil and fracking fluids. In just one week, more than 60 spills were reported in North Dakota's Bakken oil and gas fields in 2024. Man camps that house workers also contribute to pollution. In one instance,

783-477: A recent effort from leaders in man camps to write tighter rules for residents in these facilities to help prevent these issues. There are many negative consequences to the environment that come from activity on the Bakken oil formation, The Bakken Formation is considered a “carbon bomb” by PBS podcast host Ethan Brown, or a fossil fuel initiative projected to release more than one billion tons of carbon throughout its operational lifespan. The Bakken oil and gas field

870-477: A record high of 71,000 barrels per day (11,000 m /d). The Bakken Formation also produces in Manitoba, yielding 42.1 thousand barrels per day of crude oil in 2020. [i] Updated the statistic to be more current. Most Bakken wells are drilled and completed in the middle member. Many wells are now being drilled and completed in the basal Sanish/Pronghorn member and in the underlying Three Forks Formation, which

957-439: A report issued by the state of North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources estimated that the North Dakota portion of the Bakken contained 167 billion barrels (26.6 billion cubic metres) of oil in place. Although the amount of oil in place is a very large oil resource, the percentage that can be extracted with current technology is another matter. Estimates of the Bakken's recovery factor have ranged from as low as 1%—because

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1044-542: A report with a lower estimate of 2.1 billion barrels (330,000,000 m ) of technically recoverable oil in the Bakken. Various other estimates place the total reserves, recoverable and non-recoverable with today's technology, at up to 24 billion barrels. A recent estimate places the figure at 18 billion barrels. In April 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey released a new figure for expected ultimate recovery of 7.4 billion barrels of oil. The application of hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling technologies has caused

1131-487: A time of shallower, well-oxygenated water. The middle dolomite member is the principal oil reservoir, roughly two miles (3 km) below the surface. Both the upper and lower shale members are organic-rich marine shale. The Bakken Formation has emerged in recent years as one of the most important sources of new oil production in the United States. Most Bakken drilling and production has been in North Dakota, although

1218-466: A total of 136 wells in the Monterey formation that would use cyclic steam injection to produce tight oil . In 2013, the county planning commission declined its staff's recommendation to approve the project, calling for more study on concerns raised by environmentalists about greenhouse-gas emissions. The County Board of Supervisors approved the proposed project on November 18, 2013 and SME was cited as

1305-684: Is already naturally fractured, and it may be many years, if ever, before the Monterey becomes a significant producer of shale oil. The Monterey Formation strata vary. Its lower Miocene members show indications of weak coastal upwelling , with fossil assemblages and calcareous -siliceous rocks formed from diatoms and coccolithophorids . Its middle and upper Miocene upwelling-rich assemblages, and its unique highly siliceous rocks from diatom-rich plankton, became diatomites , porcelainites , and banded cherts . It generally dates to between 16 to 7 million years ago, but some sections are as early as 18 million years old or as young as 6 million years old. Most of

1392-533: Is also a lack of substance-abuse treatment centers in the area to help treat the rising number of people struggling with addiction. This increase in violent crime also disproportionately harms women, with higher rates of sexual assault and rape. Between 2006 and 2012 women saw a 54% surge in the incidence of unlawful sexual contact, primarily driven by an increase in statutory rape reports. This increase in violent crime particularly impacted minority and indigenous women as overall violence rates amongst these groups were

1479-491: Is also responsible for the leaking of large amounts of methane. Both CO2 and methane are amongst some of the most prominent and harmful gasses that contribute to air pollution. There are also a host of other environmental impacts coming out of the region including disruption of natural ecosystems and pollution. An article by the National Park Service concerning Theodore Roosevelt National Park , which takes up

1566-431: Is expected to ultimately total 270 million barrels (43,000,000 m ), drew a great deal of attention to the trend where oil was trapped along the Bakken pinchout . In 2007, production from Elm Coulee averaged 53,000 barrels per day (8,400 m /d)—more than the entire state of Montana a few years earlier. The Mondak Field to the southeast of Elm Coulee extended the productive pinchout trend into North Dakota. Elm Coulee

1653-457: Is generally higher than conventional reservoirs owing to the lack of predictability of the trap extent and of the reservoir quality, which requires extensive well placement and testing to determine the economic reserves /well limit defined by well delivery . As with all forms of fossil fuel , there are established issues with greenhouse gas emissions through export (distribution) as well as consumption (combustion), which are identical whether

1740-407: Is only one refinery in the area. As a result, the oil and gas prices received have been much lower than the normal North American index prices of West Texas Intermediate for oil and Henry Hub for gas. The shortage of pipeline capacity has caused some producers to ship oil out of the area by more expensive methods of truck or railroad. It was Bakken crude oil carried by train that caught fire in

1827-632: Is produced from the Monterey itself. The Monterey formation is the source for such giant oilfields as the Kern River , Elk Hills , Midway-Sunset Oil Field , and probable source for the overlying North and South Belridge Oil Fields . Monterey Formation oil was discovered at the Orcutt Oil Field in the Santa Maria Basin of Santa Barbara County in 1901. This was quickly followed by other Monterey discoveries nearby, including

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1914-527: Is significant, measurable and predictable. Bakken formation The Bakken Formation ( / ˈ b ɑː k ən / BAH-kən ) is a rock unit from the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian age occupying about 200,000 square miles (520,000 km ) of the subsurface of the Williston Basin , underlying parts of Montana , North Dakota , Saskatchewan and Manitoba . The formation

2001-634: The American Midwest . Unlike the rejected cross-border Keystone XL Pipeline , the pipeline project to carry American crude across the border was approved by the US government without controversy. Absent the infrastructure to produce and export natural gas , it is merely flared on the spot; a 2013 study estimated the cost at $ 100 million per month. The North Dakota oil boom has given those who own mineral rights large incomes from lease bonuses and royalties. The boom has reduced unemployment and given

2088-684: The Cat Canyon Oil Field and Lompoc Oil Field . Each of these early Monterey discoveries depended on natural fractures in the Monterey. The Monterey Formation is one of the reservoirs in the Elk Hills Oil Field as well as one of the reservoirs (Belridge Diatomite) of the Lost Hills Oil Field , both located in Kern County . Major Monterey production was also discovered in offshore oil fields, such as

2175-639: The Irving Oil Refinery in New Brunswick derailed and exploded in the town centre of Lac-Mégantic. It destroyed 30 buildings (half the downtown core) and killed 47 people. The explosion was estimated to have a one-kilometre (0.62 mi) blast radius. As of January 2015, estimates varied on the break-even oil price for drilling Bakken wells. The North Dakota Department of Natural Resources estimated overall break-even to be just below US$ 40 per barrel. An analyst for Wood Mackenzie said that

2262-790: The South Ellwood Oil Field in the Santa Barbara Channel, and the Point Arguello Field in the Santa Maria Basin. The North Shafter and Rose oil fields of Kern County, which produce primarily from the Monterey Formation, were discovered in 1983, but attempts to produce the oil have not been highly economic. Some horizontal wells were drilled in the Rose field in the early 2000s, with 2,500-foot lateral lengths and single-stage open-hole fracs;

2349-548: The oil industry , there was no need for stimulation to improve recovery efficiency, because supply vastly outstripped demand and leaving "difficult" oil in the ground was economically expedient. Two world wars , followed by huge economic growth resulted in surging demand for cheap portable energy, while the availability of new conventional oil and gas resources declined. The industry initially sought to enhance recovery of trapped oil and gas, using techniques like restricted , or low volume hydraulic fracturing to stimulate

2436-791: The oil well . Hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S, also known as sour gas ) is found to varying degrees in crude petroleum . The gas is flammable, corrosive, poisonous, and explosive; thus, oil with higher levels of H 2 S presents challenges such as "health and environmental risks, corrosion of wellbore, added expense with regard to materials handling and pipeline equipment, and additional refinement requirements." Bakken oil has historically been characterized as "sweet", meaning that it has little or no H 2 S. However, increased concentration of H 2 S over time has been observed in some Bakken wells, believed to be due to certain completion practices, such as hydraulic fracturing into neighboring formations, that may contain high levels of H 2 S. Some other formations in

2523-705: The Bakken Formation was a better exploration target than the upper or lower members. Although the middle member held less oil in place than the organic shales both above and below, it was able to maintain open fractures more than the shales. Horizontal wells in the middle Bakken were used successfully to develop the Elm Coulee Field in Montana. The 2000 discovery of the Elm Coulee Oil Field , Richland County, Montana , where production

2610-414: The Bakken an excellent candidate for horizontal drilling techniques in which a well is drilled horizontally along bedding planes, rather than vertically through them. In this way, a borehole can contact many thousands of feet of oil reservoir rock in a unit with a maximum thickness of only about 140 feet (40 m). Production is also enhanced by artificially fracturing the rock, to allow oil to seep to

2697-458: The Bakken and Three Forks formations and 6.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 530 million barrels of natural gas liquids using current technology. The Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistics service of the Department of Energy, estimated in 2013 that there were 1.6 billion barrels and 2.2 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable oil and natural gas in

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2784-575: The Bakken shale has generally low porosity and low permeability, making the oil difficult to extract—to Leigh Price's estimate of 50% recoverable. Reports issued by both the USGS and the state of North Dakota in April 2013 estimated up to 7.4 billion barrels of oil can be recovered from the Bakken and Three Forks formations in the Dakotas and Montana, using current technology. The flurry of drilling activity in

2871-400: The Bakken shale ranged from 271 to 503 billion barrels (43.1 to 80.0 billion cubic metres), with a mean of 413 billion barrels (65.7 billion cubic metres). While others before him had begun to realize that the oil generated by the Bakken shales had remained within the Bakken, it was Price, who had spent much of his career studying the Bakken, who particularly stressed this point. If he

2958-545: The Bakken trend. These include EOG Resources , Continental Resources , Chord Energy , Marathon Oil Corporation , Diamondback Energy , and Hess Corporation . In Canada, operators include Ridgeback Resources , and Crescent Point Energy . LIG Assets, Inc. elected to participate in a 10% industry position in a group of oil leases located in the Bakken formation in North Dakota. The leases comprise approximately 1,280 acres (520 ha) in McKenzie County ,

3045-488: The Bakken was mostly responsible for the decrease in US oil imports since 2005. The US imported 52% of its oil in 2011, down from 65% in 2005. Hydraulically fractured wells in the Bakken, Eagle Ford , and other tight oil targets enabled US crude oil production to rise in September 2013 to the highest output since 1989. A research paper by USGS geochemist Leigh Price in 1999 estimated the total amount of oil contained in

3132-421: The Bakken, coupled with the wide range of estimates of in-place and recoverable oil, led North Dakota senator Byron Dorgan to ask the USGS to conduct a study of the Bakken's potentially recoverable oil. In April 2008 the USGS released this report, which estimated the amount of technically recoverable, undiscovered oil in the Bakken formation at 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels (480 to 680 million cubic metres), with

3219-711: The Bakken/Three Forks were 2.00 billion barrels of oil as of 2011. The Bakken formation has produced oil since 1953, when the #1 Woodrow Starr was completed in North Dakota by Stanolind Oil and Gas. A portion of the Bakken oil region sits on the Fort Berthold Reservation, created in 1870. Fort Berthold is home to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation- also known as MHA Nation or the Three Affiliated Tribes. Fort Berthold

3306-591: The Canadian portion of the Bakken formation. Crescent Point Energy and other operators are implementing waterfloods in the Bakken Formation of the Viewfield Oil Field in Saskatchewan. Some believe that waterflooding can raise the recovery factor at Viewfield from 19 percent to more than 30 percent, adding 1.5 to two billion barrels of additional oil. The US EIA reported that proved reserves in

3393-520: The EIA is about 9% larger. The EIA also reports that the Bakken rig count dropped about 60% over the year ending in October 2015 in response to the collapsing price of oil , while the new-well (initial) oil production per rig increased by 40%, both apparently plateauing at that time. (The production rate from fracked wells decreases more rapidly than from conventional wells drilled in more permeable rock.) Several public companies had drilling rigs in

3480-448: The Monterey Shale widely economic through hydraulic fracturing; to date it has been economic only in those limited locations already naturally fractured. Richard Behl, a geology professor who heads the "Monterey And Related Sediments" (MARS) consortium at California State University Long Beach , said that "The [EIA] numbers probably were overblown, but it was a simple method and had an essence of truth." Compared to other shale oil plays,

3567-487: The Monterey formation is much thicker and more laterally extensive, but also much more geologically complex and deformed. See the linked photos from a field trip to Monterey outcrops at Vandenberg Air Force Base . "To say California geology is complex is an understatement. ... The Monterey play is no slam-dunk." In 2013, Bakken shale-oil pioneer Harold Hamm said the Monterey "might have a lot of potential, but there are reasons why it’s not being produced." J. David Hughes,

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3654-694: The North Dakota Bakken jumped from 300 in 2006 to 457 in 2007. The viability of the play in North Dakota west of the Nesson Anticline was uncertain until 2009, when Brigham Oil & Gas achieved success with larger hydraulic fracturing treatments, with 25 or more stages. According to the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, daily oil production per well reached a plateau at 145 barrels in June 2010. Although

3741-404: The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources treats as part of the Bakken for oil production statistical purposes. Porosities in the Bakken averages about 5%, and permeabilities are very low, averaging 0.04 millidarcys —much lower than typical oil reservoirs, in today's terms an unconventional light tight oil play. However, the presence of vertical to sub-vertical natural fractures makes

3828-514: The USC study's assumption that development of the Monterey shale could increase California oil production as much as seven-fold to be "unfounded," and the economic projections regarding jobs and tax revenue to be "extremely suspect." The Monterey Formation is considered the source of 84% of the oil in known fields of the San Joaquin Basin, a total of 12.2 billion barrels of oil. Of this, 112 million barrels of oil in known fields

3915-613: The United States's total estimated technically recoverable shale oil ( tight oil contained in shale , as distinct from oil shale ) resource, about 15.4 billion barrels (2.45 × 10 ^  m). In 2012, the EIA revised its recoverable volume downward, to 13.7 billion barrels (2.18 × 10 ^  m). As of 2013 advances in hydraulic fracturing commonly called "fracking," and the high price of oil resulted in spirited bidding by oil companies for leases. Occidental Petroleum and Venoco were reported to have been major players. The deposit lies 6,000 and 15,000 feet (1,800 and 4,600 m) below

4002-690: The Williston Basin have always produced "sour" (high H 2 S) crude oil, and because sweet oil brings a higher price, oil transporters suspect that some sour oil is being blended into sweet Bakken crude. H 2 S in crude oil is being investigated as a possible cause of the explosive nature of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster. Pipeline transport operator Enbridge no longer accepts crude with more than five parts per million H 2 S, citing safety concerns. Increased US oil production from hydraulically fractured tight oil wells in formations such as

4089-458: The Williston basin could become the world's largest discovery in the last 30–40 years," as ultimate recovery from the overall play is now estimated at 24 billion barrels (3.8 billion cubic metres). (Note: the recent discoveries off the coast of Brazil should be greater, with proven reserves of 30 billion, and a potential for 50 to 80. ) This considerable increase has been made possible by

4176-411: The abrupt eastern limit of the field is formed by the extent of thermally mature Bakken shale; shale farther east is thermally immature, and unproductive. The Parshall Oil Field discovery, combined with other factors, including an oil-drilling tax break enacted by the state of North Dakota in 2007, shifted attention in the Bakken from Montana to the North Dakota side. The number of wells drilled in

4263-478: The area. Increasing economic prosperity has also brought increasing crime and social problems. Research has found an increase in violent crime in areas surrounding the Bakken oil region, primarily among indigenous communities. A study by the University of Colorado Boulder showed that between 2006 and 2012, the rate of violent victimization increased 70% in the Bakken oil region. During this same time, there

4350-511: The blame can be assigned to the rig subcontractor. Statutes have been established to prevent this in four other oil-producing states: Texas , Louisiana , New Mexico and Wyoming . There have also been reports of lack of proper safety precautions in the Bakken oil region. For example, Dustin Payne was an employee in the Bakken region who died after an oil tank he was welding exploded. Payne had previously expressed concerned for his safety. Before

4437-462: The combined use of horizontal drilling , hydraulic fracturing , and a large number of wells drilled. While these technologies have been consistently in use since the 1980s, the Bakken trend is the place where they are being most heavily used: 150 active rigs in the play and a rate of 1,800 added wells per year. An April 2013 estimate by the USGS projects that 7.4 billion barrels (1.18 billion cubic metres) of undiscovered oil can be recovered from

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4524-436: The crews. In 2015, the oil boom in North Dakota was reported to have brought with it the highest worker fatality rate in the United States. It was reported that on average, an oil worker died in the Bakken every six weeks. One company offered workers daily bonuses of $ 150 for drilling quickly, while those who proceeded more slowly, exercising caution, were offered only $ 40 a day. The well owner may avoid liability for accidents if

4611-573: The deadly 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster in Quebec . Part of the disaster at Lac-Mégantic has been blamed on the fact that much of the highly volatile Bakken oil was mislabeled as lower risk oil and was being shipped in substandard tank cars not designed to contain it. Because of the shortage of pipeline capacity out of North Dakota, over half of its production is sent to market by rail. BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway reported to Minnesota officials that about 50 Bakken oil trains pass through

4698-545: The few examples of fossilized non-calcareous algae in the world, which tend to be preserved in diatomite. Unconventional (oil %26 gas) reservoir Unconventional (oil and gas) reservoirs , or unconventional resources (resource plays) are accumulations where oil and gas phases are tightly bound to the rock fabric by strong capillary forces , requiring specialized measures for evaluation and extraction . Oil and gas are generated naturally at depths of around 4 or 5 kms below Earth’s surface . Being lighter than

4785-495: The formation also extends into Montana and the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. As of 2013, the Bakken was the source of more than ten percent of all US oil production. By April 2014, Bakken production in North Dakota and Montana exceeded 1 million barrels per day (160,000 m /d). As a result of increased production from the Bakken, and long-term production declines in Alaska and California , North Dakota as of 2014

4872-459: The formation's sediments appear to represent siliceous shales deposited at the edge of the continental shelf or in abyssal plains in the lower to middle bathyal zone . These deep-sea sediments were brought to the surface via tectonic activity. A similar depositional environment and geologic history is known for the adjacent, contemporaneous Modelo Formation , which preserves a similar paleobiota. The Monterey formation has long been recognized as

4959-475: The highest in the region. Man camps are temporary housing compounds built to support the work force in the region. These camps are prominent in the Bakken oil region as the influx of an overwhelmingly male work force has flooded the region. The camps are made as a response to too many jobs and not enough beds to house all of the new workers. Capital Lodge and Tioga Lodge in the Bakken oil region house up to 3,700 residents. These man camps have also been blamed for

5046-413: The incident, Payne texted his fiancée that he did not feel “comfortable welding this at all.” Al Jazeera correspondent Josh Rushing speculates that Payne's death is one that could have been avoided had the company he worked for had better safety measures in place for workers. The great increases in oil and gas production have exceeded the area's pipeline capacity to transport hydrocarbons to markets. There

5133-803: The increase of violent crime in the Bakken oil region. There is an even greater potential harm resulting from man camps when they are located on or near Native communities, which already face higher rates of violence against women. As pointed out by Muscogee Creek law scholar Sarah Deer, this is often due the complicated 2013 reform of the Violence Against Women Act. The 2013 reform is limited to violence committed by spouses, former spouses, or dating partners, making it so that sexual violence committed on reservations often cannot be prosecuted. Legal scholar Ana Condes states that man camps are “hotbeds of rape, domestic violence, and sex trafficking, and American Indian women are frequently targeted due to

5220-432: The number of wells tripled between June 2010 and December 2012, oil production per well remained essentially unchanged. However, as more wells were brought online, total oil produced continued to increase until it peaked in mid-2015 at 1.15 million barrels per day. The increase ended because of a slow decline in daily production per well that began in 2013, down to 115 barrels in mid-2015. The peak production value reported by

5307-476: The oil or gas are derived from conventional or unconventional reservoirs. Their carbon footprints , however, are radically different: conventional reservoirs use the natural energy in the environment to flow oil and gas to the surface unaided; unconventional reservoirs require putting energy into the ground for extraction, either as heat ( e.g. tar sands and oil shales) or as pressure ( e.g. shale gas and CBM ). The artificial transfer of heat and pressure require

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5394-553: The overall break-even price was US$ 62/barrel, but in high-productivity areas such as the Sanish Field and the Parshall Oil Field , the break-even price was US$ 38–US$ 40 per barrel. The rock formation consists of three members : lower shale , middle dolomite , and upper shale. The shales were deposited in relatively deep anoxic marine conditions, and the dolomite was deposited as a coastal carbonate bank during

5481-401: The pockets are permeable , they are referred to as conventional reservoirs . Wells are drilled into these reservoirs to create a path for oil and gas to reach the surface. When pressure differences are relatively high, oil and gas rise to the well bore naturally through buoyancy. Where the pressures are low, flow can be assisted with pumps (e.g. nodding donkeys ). In the early days of

5568-411: The potential to generate hundreds of million dollars for the tribes, offering the change to construct new roads, schools, and essential housing and healthcare facilities, but it also comes with a steep social cost with an increase in violence against Native populations. A major advance in extracting oil from the Bakken came in 1995, when geologist Dick Findley realized that the dolomitic Middle member of

5655-423: The previous year. The bill, which Governor Jerry Brown promised to sign, provided for disclosure of chemical used, pre-testing of nearby water wells, and a study on environmental and safety issues to be completed by January 2015. Given the very limited success with fracking the Monterey to date, some find the controversy "much ado about little." In Santa Barbara County , Santa Maria Energy LLC (SME) has proposed

5742-642: The primary source of the oil produced from other formations in Southern California; the Monterey itself has been very productive where it is naturally fractured. Since 2011, the possibility that hydraulic fracturing might make the Monterey Shale productive over large areas has gained widespread public attention. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) in 2011, the 1,750-square-mile (4,500 km) Monterey Shale Formation contained more than half of

5829-462: The qualities of the reservoir and/or the physical properties of the oil and gas ( i.e. permeability and/or viscosity ). These characteristics significantly impact predictability (risk to find, appraise and develop) and in turn the methods of extraction from those reservoirs such as fracking . Conventional oil & gas accumulations are concentrated by buoyancy driven aquifer pathways into discrete geological traps, which are detectable from

5916-784: The reservoir further, thereby reducing the volume of oil and gas left in the ground to an economic minimum. By the turn of the millennium , a new kind of energy resource was required, particularly by the USA, who were driven to achieve energy independence . The USA turned to unconventional reservoirs to achieve their goals, which had been known about for decades but had previously been too costly to be economically attractive. Today, unconventional reservoirs include basin-centered gas , shale gas , coalbed methane (CBM), gas hydrates , tar sands , light tight oil and oil shale , mostly from North America. The distinction between conventional and unconventional resources reflects differences in

6003-602: The results were said to be improvements over vertical wells. Carbon dioxide injection has been tested in the Monterey shale, with mixed results. "The main problem was that the carbon dioxide didn't increase production as much as hoped. ... That could be because the rock formation is so jumbled up, it's hard to find the right spot in which to inject the carbon dioxide." Oil companies such as Occidental Petroleum are using acidizing to stimulate production in Monterey wells, and other companies are experimenting with proprietary mixes of hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids . "There's

6090-485: The rock by strong capillary forces incapable of flowing naturally through buoyancy. The limits of an unconventional field are therefore usually defined by relatively expensive well testing for delivery. Extraction from unconventional reservoirs requires changing the physical properties of the reservoir, or the flow characteristics of the fluid, using techniques such as fracking or steam injection . The technical and commercial risk associated with unconventional reservoirs

6177-428: The rock unit itself. Oil was first discovered within the Bakken in 1951, but past efforts to produce it have faced technical difficulties. In April 2008, a USGS report estimated the amount of recoverable oil using technology readily available at the end of 2007 within the Bakken Formation at 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels (680,000,000 m ), with a mean of 3.65 billion. Simultaneously the state of North Dakota released

6264-412: The seismically active region. The California legislature passed a bill regulating fracking in September 2013. Some environmentalists criticised the bill as being too lax. Some environmentalists promised not to rest until fracking is banned completely. Oil industry representatives criticized the bill as too restrictive. The measure was supported by state Sen. Fran Pavley, author of a fracking bill defeated

6351-577: The state each week, mostly through the Twin Cities of Minneapolis–Saint Paul . At least 15 major accidents involving crude oil or ethanol trains have occurred in the United States and Canada since 2006, and most small cities such as Lac-Megantic are not prepared for oil train explosions and fires. In March 2013, Canadian pipeline company Enbridge completed a pipeline to take North Dakota oil north into Canada, where it hooks up to Enbridge's main pipeline delivering western Canadian oil to refineries in

6438-412: The state of North Dakota a billion-dollar budget surplus. North Dakota, which ranked 38th in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001, rose steadily with the Bakken boom, and now has per capita GDP 29% above the national average. The industrialization and population boom has put a strain on water supplies, sewage systems, available housing and government services of the small towns and ranches in

6525-463: The surface. A widely cited March 2013 study released by the University of Southern California (USC) estimated that if extensive resource play development of the Monterey through hydraulic fracturing were successful, it could generate as many as 2.8 million jobs and as much as $ 24.6 billion in state and local taxes. However, observers have pointed out that as of 2012, however large its theoretical potential, no one as yet has succeeded in making

6612-830: The surface. These traps constitute relatively small but high resource density fields . Most conventional oil or gas fields initially flow naturally by buoyancy alone into the well bore, with their limits defined by fluid mechanics measurable from the well bore ( e.g. fluid pressure, OWC/GWC etc. ). In general, the technical and commercial risk associated with discrete conventional reservoirs can be reduced using relatively inexpensive remote techniques such as reflection seismology and extracted with relatively few appraisal and development wells. Unconventional reservoirs, in contrast, are regionally dispersed over large areas with no indicative trap geometry that can be used for predictive purposes. The oil and gas in unconventional reservoirs are generally low density resources, frequently trapped in

6699-425: The use of large volumes of fresh water creating supply and disposal issues . The distribution of the resource over large areas creates land use issues, with implications for local communities on infrastructure, freight traffic and local economies. Impact on the environment is an unavoidable consequence of all human activity but the difference between the impact of conventional reservoirs compared with unconventional

6786-479: The water saturating rocks below the water table , the oil and gas are driven by buoyancy up through aquifer pathways towards Earth's surface over time. Some of the oil and gas percolate all the way to the surface as natural seepages , either on land or on the sea floor. The rest remains trapped underground by geological barriers in a variety of trap geometries . In this way, underground pockets of oil and gas accumulate by displacing water in porous rock . If

6873-429: The years of 2009 and 2013, there were more than 9,000 injury claims related to the oil and gas industry filed with North Dakota's Workforce Safety & Insurance Agency. Between 2011 and 2015, at least 40 workers died as a result of their industries in North Dakota's oil and gas fields. With the persistently low price of oil in 2015, there was pressure on rigs to maximize drilling speed, with associated additional risks to

6960-522: Was found to increase 30% in the Bakken oil region while simultaneously decreasing 4% in the non-Bakken region. Author Sari Horwitz for The Washington Post reports that the crime wave surrounding man camps is largely fueled by a market for illegal drugs, mainly heroin and methamphetamine. This has gone on to impact local reservations, which are often short staffed and unable to deal with these serious crimes. There are sometimes only two tribal officers on duty responsible for protecting entire reservations. There

7047-519: Was initially described by geologist J. W. Nordquist in 1953. The formation is entirely in the subsurface, and has no surface outcrop. It is named after Henry O. Bakken (1901–1982), a farmer in Tioga, North Dakota , who owned the land where the formation was initially discovered while drilling for oil . Besides the Bakken Formation being a widespread prolific source rock for oil when thermally mature, significant producible oil reserves exist within

7134-442: Was key to later Bakken development because it combined horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing, and targeted the dolomitic middle Bakken member rather than the shales of the upper or lower Bakken. New interest developed in 2006 when EOG Resources reported that a single well it had drilled into an oil-rich layer of shale near Parshall, North Dakota , was anticipated to produce 700,000 barrels (110,000 m ) of oil. At Parshall,

7221-480: Was no corresponding rise in violent crime found in counties outside of the Bakken oil region. Violent victimizations were down 8% in this same time period in regions outside of the Bakken. The increase of violent victimization by strangers in the Bakken region increased by 53% in the region during those 6 years as well, with the victimization of Black and Native American people 2.5 times higher than corresponding rates for white people. Finally, serious violent victimization

7308-505: Was once home primarily to farmers and traders until the construction of the Garrison Dam in 1947 wiped out much of the farmland and forced a majority of the Three Affiliated Tribes to relocate to higher ground on the prairie. According to Lower Brule Sioux historian Nick Estes, the dam inundated the Fort Berthold Reservation and took 152,360 acres of their land, a loss of a quarter of the reservation's entire land base. The oil boom holds

7395-409: Was right, the large amounts of oil remaining in this formation would make it a prime oil exploration target. Price died in 2000 before his research could be peer-reviewed and published. The drilling and production successes in much of the Bakken beginning with the Elm Coulee Oil Field discovery in 2000 have proven correct his claim that the oil generated by the Bakken shale was there. In April 2008,

7482-566: Was the most productive oil producing county in the state as of 2015. By 2015, some companies had sold assets in the Bakken, in favor of exploring the Permian Basin in Texas, due in part to the higher cost of transport to major markets closer to tidewater with lower cost access to foreign oil markets. Oil extraction in Bakken field declined by around 20% from mid-2015 to mid-2016 and then remained rather stable through mid-2017. Between

7569-478: Was the second-largest oil-producing state in the US, behind only Texas in volume of oil produced. Bakken production has also increased in Canada , although to a lesser degree than in the US, since the 2004 discovery of the Viewfield Oil Field in Saskatchewan. The same techniques of horizontal drilling and multi-stage massive hydraulic fracturing are used. In December 2012, 2,357 Bakken wells in Saskatchewan produced

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