While global energy consumption rises, there is increasing pressure on governments and oil companies to continue uncovering large deposits of oil and natural gas. This is necessary to stem the tide of national dependence on foreign oil and will remain an important political and economic factor until fossil fuels are eliminated in favor of technology for cleaner energy or fossil fuel supply runs out.
It is easy to understand how in this climate of increasing need, the alleged discovery of 500 billion barrels of crude oil in U.S. oil field has raised a lot of interest Bakken. Continuously increasing prices of crude oil from OPEC countries has led to a fuel and a more expensive heating fuel for vehicles, which have had a negative impact on quality of life for citizens of developed nations that import oil to meet their energy needs.
But what is the true status of this oil field? There has been much promotion on the internet about how this is the next big oil boom and that wise investors should seize this opportunity to get in on the ground level to achieve massive gains of imminent oil rivers that flow out of this great deposit. Not only the authors of the Bakken oil field have suggested that the oil can be produced from this site at a cost as low as $ 16US per barrel, but there is enough oil there to meet the energy needs of all of the U.S. by up to 40 years. They have even gone as far to say that this field hail the return of cheap automotive gasoline in the United States.
To make sense of applications and data around the needs of one of Bakken oil field really only understand two words. The oil fields are described as discrete or continuous. A discrete oil field contains the vast majority of the deposit in a location that was hit at least slightly and bring to the surface quite easily. Here are the oil deposits that have brought such wealth and influence of OPEC.
The other type of oil deposit is described as continuous. While this sounds like a positive description, really means that the oil is spread out with many layers and over a wide area. There will be small pockets of oil generally met but they represent only a tiny fraction of the total quantity of oil into the surrounding rocks. This is obviously a far lower rate of deposit of oil with respect to discrete type. The state of an oil tank as a continuous means that access to oil is very limited or impossible.
The Bakken oilfield oil field is a continuum. The U.S. Geological Survey has recently reported that less than 1% of the upper estimate of 503 billion barrels of oil on the site are easily accessible, meaning meeting in deposits large enough to be commercially viable. The remaining oil is distributed throughout the area fine. Because it is unlikely that the oil in this area will be helpful to draw any time soon, and the prospect of barrels of oil from $ 16US is a wild claim.
This is a case of buyer beware. The hype surrounding this deposit probably attracts people who are willing to deceive others in investing in empty promises. The promise of cheap oil and the enormous personal benefits are two things that affect us in everyday life, the first because we are tired of forking out large amounts of money at the gas pump, the other because we all want to make safe investments and achieve financial freedom.
