According to a recent government report, a massive geological formation that stretches across both the Dakotas as well as Montana could contain roughly twice the amount of “oil” and three times the amount of “natural gas” that experts first believed to be present. A number of oil and gas research companies are now rushing to develop multi-year plans to increase production in the area. Known as the Three Forks and Bakken Formations, this area has already produced almost 450 million barrels of oil since 2008. According to the recently released report from the U.S. Geological Survey, there could still be billions of barrels of oil and literally trillions of cubic feet of natural gas remaining in this prolific field.
This is certainly good news for the oil and gas industry as well as consumers while also further underscoring the importance of core samples research. For decades, oil and gas research has relied upon the use of core samples in Texas and other areas to gauge the amount of natural resources in a particular area. Through careful coring procedures, it is possible to obtain invaluable information regarding the makeup of specific rock formations. Not only can such samples provide information regarding the depth at which resources may be located, but also estimated oil and gas levels within a particular formation.