PARSHALL FIELD, NORTH DAKOTA, DISCOVERY-OF-THE-YEAR FOR THE ROCKIES AND BEYOND

Parshall Field, a Bakken reservoir, located in Mountrail County, North Dakota, is the discovery-of-the-year for the Rocky Mountain region. Discovered in 2006 by EOG Resources, it is an unusual and complex, stratigraphic-type trap. It has developed into a huge resource play covering some 110 townships, over 2,500,000 acres, and is still expanding. The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources estimates recoverable Bakken oil reserves for North Dakota at two to three billion barrels, less than 1.5% of oil-in-place. It owes its economic viability to the technological advances in horizontal drilling as well as cutting edge hydraulic fracturing techniques. Additional components for this discovery are its unique geochemistry, seismic definition, faulting, stratigraphy and trap style. The Parshall discovery gives credence to the concept that large, commercial oil and gas reserves in similar-type traps and reservoirs are yet to be discovered and developed for domestic US production.