An REIT has significant exposure in the area of the Bakken Play.  Conservative investors looking for income and wanting to be helped by expanding production in the Bakken might be interested.  Here is a report from Bloomberg: North Dakota REIT Climbs as Oil Boom Boosts Dividend (Update2) By Peter J. Brennan July 11 (Bloomberg) — The oil and agriculture booms pumping up North Dakota’s economy may help Investors Real Estate Trust reverse five quarters of profit declines and boost a dividend that’s triple the yield on the Russell …

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XTO Energy will spend nearly $2 billion to acquire a piece of the Bakken Shale field.  XTO is the largest natural gas producer and one of the most respected energy companies in America.  This move could indicate a shift in emphasis on XTO’s part toward oil production.  The Energy Investment Strategies portfolio holds a small position in XTO.  Here is the report from today’s Wall Street Journal: XTO Energy Deal Highlights Interest in U.S.-Canada Field By BEN CASSELMANMay 29, 2008; Page A8 …

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ND Study: 167 Billion Barrels of Oil in Bakken From Rigzone.comAFX News Limited      Monday, April 28, 2008 The Bakken shale formation in North Dakota holds up to 167 billion barrels of oil but only about 1 percent of it can be recovered using current technology, a new study says. The …

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Here is a detailed analysis and discussion of the significance of the Bakken formation from The Oil Drum.  

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Here is an excellent report from the Cleantech web site:

April 17, 2008 by Dallas Kachan

The oil the USGS says is in them thar North American hills doesn’t undermine cleantech initiatives.

The clean technology industry has no cause, apparently, to be rattled by reports of vast amounts of new recoverable oil in North America, threatening to undermine the economics of renewable energy.

No, the peak oil crowd—despite their, our and the rest of the world’s wishes to the contrary—looks vindicated: we appear to still be running out of oil at a worrisome rate, …

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The extent of the Bakken Formation oil reserves and the speed at which they can be extracted will be the subject or many further announcements as they become better known and defined.  For now all we can say is that there seems to be a lot of recoverable oil there.   Let’s keep in mind that there is also a lot of recoverable oil in the Canadian and Venezuelan oil sands, but the maximum flow rates have proven and likely will continue to prove hard to increase rapidly.  There may not …

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