A New Energy Future is Emerging From Tight Oil and It Holds the Promise of Ending Oil Imports

From the Globe and Mail: 

"The Bakken is an oil play that has erupted across a forgotten corner of the U.S. It is a frenzy of drilling and pumping and moneymaking. It is also a place where a new energy future is emerging, one that holds the promise of ending U.S. dependence on overseas oil and kick-starting the country's stagnant economy. Government estimates suggest it could yield 4.3 billion barrels of oil. One industry estimate is five times higher, which would mean the Bakken alone could hold as much recoverable oil as the rest of the country. And it's just the beginning.

The flares lit in the Bakken, a so-called “tight oil” play enabled by a revolution in drilling technology, are spreading rapidly across the continent. Suddenly, geologists and drillers are discovering that what works in the Bakken works in a lot of other places, too, bringing forth sudden new volumes of oil – and optimism that there will be much more – in Texas, in Utah, in Ohio, in Saskatchewan and in Alberta. In all, 14 places are being explored for tight oil.

All those drills turning in all those places have sweeping ramifications for North America.

The Bakken and its followers have fundamentally altered the energy outlook for the continent. If energy consultant IHS CERA is right, in the span of merely one decade, tight oil wells will pump more oil than the entire oil sands. The growth is so globally significant that the firm has reduced its 2020 world oil price estimate down from $120 to $100 a barrel. And it's begun contemplating possibilities that would have been considered insane only a few years ago.

Tight oil also stands to have a substantial economic impact. The enormous cost of drilling tens of thousands of wells – which can run $10 million each, not including the cost of acquiring land – will pour hundreds of billions into domestic wages and manufacturing. The fact that Americans will be buying U.S. gas at the pumps will also have a meaningful impact on the dollars the country sends abroad every year.

“There might be some possibility that we could ... pretty much reduce our oil imports to zero,” said Leta Smith, director of oil and gas supply outlooks with IHS CERA. “That's a really optimistic case. And that's not what we're forecasting right now. But still, it's an interesting question to postulate.”

The sun that shines on the Bakken, it seems, is shining on America itself."