Bakken Shale Deposits

The Bakken Shale oil deposits in North Dakota alone may contain almost 200 billion barrels of oil, according to estimates by the USGS and the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources. Of that, about two and a half billion barrels are currently recoverable.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that up to 4.3 billion barrels of oil could be recovered from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and Montana, using current technology.

That report was done independently of the state study, Murphy said.

"Their numbers also include Montana, ours only includes North Dakota," he said.

The federal report found up to 2.6 billion barrels could be recovered in North Dakota, compared with the state's estimate of 2.1 billion barrels, Murphy said.

"We were quite surprised the numbers were so close," he said.

...The most recent federal study does not estimate how much oil may be in the formation - only what the agency believes can be recovered using current technology.
__Bismarck Tribune__via__NextBigFuture

As better technologies are developed for recovering the oil in place, more of the several hundred billions of barrels of oil in the Bakken Formation will become recoverable. The Bakken Formation alone (North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan) is thought to contain more oil than is in Saudi Arabia.

More at NextBigFuture