Which Country Has the Biggest Oil Supply?

I got this email from a friend. It shed a lot of light on our previous article on North Dakota and the oil prices.

Get your hole poker out and tell me what’s wrong with this argument.

Which Country Has the Biggest Oil Supply?

Like you, I’ve been absolutely blown away by what has happened to the price of a gallon of gas. More like just plain mad. But it’s time, way past time, obviously, for all of us to put up or shut up. And by that I mean quit belly-aching to one another (trust me – I do it as well – so I’m talking to myself, too, here!) … and do something.

Not buying gas from one or two of the ‘Big Boys’ for a month, or electing to not buy gas on a given day is not the answer. The answer is one I know you know, and have heard many times before from people a lot more well-versed in this than me: lessening our dependence on foreign oil.

Just poking around the Internet recently, I simply ‘Googled’ the search ‘Untapped U.S. Oil Reserves,’ and the result – like the current price of a gallon of gas – BLEW ME AWAY!

I’ll share some of the highlights I found.

1. Ever heard of the Bakken Formation?

Google it. I did, and again, blew my mind. The U.S. Geological Service issued a report in April (‘08) that only scientists and oilmen/women knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn’t been updated since ‘95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota , western South Dakota and extreme eastern Montana.

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 sizeable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years,’ reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the ‘Bakken’ and it stretches from Northern Montana through North Dakota and into Canada.

For years, U.S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the ‘Big Oil’ companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades 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 barrels will cost Americans just $16 per barrel!

That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight. If that didn’t throw you on the floor, then this next one should – because it’s from two years ago, people!

2. ‘ 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 – more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005, President Bush mandated its extraction. 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 we’ve not demanded legislation to come out of Washington allowing its extraction, that’s 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 ‘Big Oil’ will drop its price – even with this find? Think again! It’s all about the competitive marketplace, and if they can extract it (here) for less, they can afford to sell it for less – and if they don’t, others will. It will come down – it has to.

Got your attention/ire up yet? Hope so! Now, while you’re thinking about it … and hopefully P.O’d, do this:

3. Take 5-10 minutes and compose an e-mail, fax or good old-fashioned letter to our elected officials in Washington and their respected leaders. We’ll start with them, and here’s how you can send them your e-mail/fax, DEMANDING the immediate Legislation/Energy Plan that calls for tapping into these (OUR OWN!) re serves, as well as allowing for the offshore drilling for our oil, in our offshore waters and inter-continental shelf … not to mention Alaska.

Technology ain’t what it used to be, people (ever had arthroscopic surgery?). They can surgically extract our oil, and get us on the way to at least some measure of Energy independence, and accomplish it in an environmentally friendly manner.

If you don’t take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you want to complain about gas prices… because by doing nothing, you’ve forfeited your right to complain.

Now don’t get us wrong. We still want to see electric cars going mass production and less pollution derived from using oil, but this really had to be said. What do you guys think?

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