The new crude oil production from shale formations like the Bakken in North Dakota are making a huge difference in the U.S. energy profile. In October, for the first time since 1995, more crude oil was produced in the United States than the nation imported. It isn’t energy independence but it’s a big step in that direction.
The surge in domestically produced oil can be tracked to the development of horizontal drilling technologies and hydraulic fracturing. Combined, the two advances in oil-field technology have, for the first time, allowed drillers to effectively tap shale formations that hold crude oil and natural gas.
Experts believe that the U.S. will surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer by 2015. North Dakota’s production will be a big part of that changed status.
Of course, North Dakotans have been feeling the rising volumes of crude oil production. The oil activity in western North Dakota has been intense, putting extreme demands on public and private services, generating profits for oil-related business and mineral owners, and pumping up the state budget surplus with tax revenues. Creating and expanding infrastructure has been the priority for everyone associated with the oil boom. Environment issues, related to drilling and transporting oil, are providing challenges to the state and nation as production expands.
The North Dakota experience, seen close at hand, has a tendency to eclipse what’s happening with oil and gas nationally. The drive for U.S. oil independence, long thought to be wishful thinking, seems, now, probable. Shale formations have been the game changer. And the remaking of North Dakota’s economy, with energy taking on a larger and larger role, is part of that change.
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