Hoeven Updates City, County Leaders on New Highway Bill, Keystone Pipeline, Regional Haze, USGS Bakk ator John Hoeven briefed city and county leaders on the progress of legislation and other issues important to North Dakota,
Marcia McNutt, Director of the USGS, and Brenda Pierce, Coordinator for USGS’s Energy Resources Program, for an update on the new survey to determine the level of recoverable reserves in the Williston Basin.
The Senator asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar this summer to have the agency conduct the new review because state and industry officials believe there are more undiscovered but technically recoverable reserves in the basin than detected in the last study, which was completed in 2008. That study reported recoverable reserves of approximately 3.65 billion barrels.
Pierce and McNutt said they are receiving significant new data from the industry and the State Geological Survey, and a team will be in North Dakota soon to collect core samples. The USGS started the study in October and expect it to be completed by the fall of 2013.
“The USGS is working to update the estimates of recoverable oil in the Bakken,” said Hoeven. “This revised study is important, because I believe it will show a substantially higher level of recoverable oil reserves, and that will help attract millions in private investments to build housing, hotels and other essential infrastructure in western North Dakota.”
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