There's oil in them thar hills

North Dakota. We drove there six years ago. It was very far away. There wasn't much going on, but we went, we saw, we did. We also checked it off of our 50 states list. Little did we know that we were walking on a oil mine. Seriously.
My friend Sue B. sent us this information. She stays well connected to current events and I appreciate her keeping us informed.

"About 6 months ago, the writer was watching a news program on oil and
one of the Forbes Bros. was the guest. The host said to Forbes, “I am going to
ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer; how much oil
does the U.S. have in the ground?” Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, “more
than all the Middle East put together.” Please read below.

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only
scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a
revised report (hadn’t been updated since 1995) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota , western South Dakota , and extreme eastern Montana …… check THIS out:

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska ‘s Prudhoe Bay,and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable….. at $107 a barrel,we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $5….3 trillion.

“When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see
their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.” says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s financial analyst.

“This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field foundin the past 56 years,” reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It’s aformation known as the Williston Basin , but is more commonly referred to as the‘Bakken.’ It stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota andinto Canada . For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a deadend. Even the ‘Big Oil’ companies gave up searching for major oil wellsdecades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves….. and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrelswill cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2041 years straight. And if THAT didn’t throw you on the floor, then this next one should – because it’s from 2006!

U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World

Stansberry Report Online – 4/20/2006

Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders,than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

– 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia

– 18-times as much oil as Iraq

– 21-times as much oil as Kuwait

– 22-times as much oil as Iran

– 500-times as much oil as Yemen

– and it’s all right here in the Western United States .

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the
environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy…..WHY?

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

Don’t think ‘OPEC’ will drop its price – even with this find? Think
again! It’s all about the competitive marketplace, – it has to… Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?

Check it out at the link below. GOOGLE it, or follow this link. It will blow your mind.

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911

And to think that we have family members working in various ways in North Dakota to tap into this oil. I'm very happy about that and wish them all well!

Also, Claire just tipped me off to this article about the oil fields in North Dakota in her beloved New Yorker magazine. Check it out here.