Elm Coulee Oil Field
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Elm Coulee Oil Field was discovered in the Williston Basin in Richland County, eastern Montana, in 2000. It produces oil from the Bakken Formation and, as of 2007, is the "highest-producing onshore field found in the lower 48 states in the past 56 years."[1] By 2007, the field had become one of the 20 largest oil fields in the United States.[2][3]
The field exploits horizontal drilling technology by perforating the productive rocks parallel to the beds, rather than through a vertical well perpendicular to the relatively thin Bakken Formation. At Elm Coulee Field, the Bakken is only about 45 feet (15 m) thick and lies at depths of 8,500 to 10,500 feet (2,600–3,200 m), but horizontal wells penetrate 3,000 to 5,000 feet (900–1,500 m) of the reservoir rock, a porous dolomite of Devonian age that probably originated as a large carbonate bank on the western flank of the basin. The field is a stratigraphic trap.[4]
In 2006, Elm Coulee was producing about 53,000 barrels (8,400 m³) of oil per day from more than 350 wells. Ultimate production is expected to exceed 270 million barrels (45 million m³),[5] with some estimates as high as 500 million barrels (80 million m³).[6] Production at Elm Coulee has more than doubled the oil output of the state of Montana.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ Wall Street Journal, quoted in Big Sky Business Journal.
- ^ Petroleum Technology Transfer Council Newsletter, Vol. 9, 2006.
- ^ Energy Information Administration list of top 100 oil fields.
- ^ Elm Coulee Field, Middle Bakken Member, by Bill Walker, Al Powell, Dick Rollins, and Ron Shaffer, 2006.
- ^ Elm Coulee Field.
- ^ USGS estimates of Bakken oil production.
- ^ Jennifer McKee, Montana Standard State Bureau, Dec. 2, 2007.
