Bakken No Longer US Tight Oil King, But Still Royalty

摘要

The Bakken Shale of North Dakota and Montana is no longer the de facto tight oil king in the US onshore oil patch. The Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas has instead taken a widening lead in oil output, while unconventional targets in the Permian Basin of West Texas and southeast New Mexico are pulling even with the US tight oil play that started it all (NGW Dec.19’11). But a 1 million barrel per day oil field is nothing to shrug at, and the Bakken is poised to remain a critical pillar of US oil production for decades to come.