I don't know about the trucks. You see them pretty much everywhere in the US.

My background is Lutheran - Norwegian ancestors. I graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. There was always somewhat of a divide between the Polish Catholics and the others. There was even a divide between the German Lutherans (who believe the Bible is literally true) and the Norwegians (who generally do not).

I suspect some folks are confused by the apparent high activity and hype in the Bakken and some of the negative comments about the play. It remains to be seen how the details of the economics play out as we get more production histories. But if you aren't familiar with the role of "promoting operators" let me explain how many unproven, and even non-commercial, wells get drilled. I'm a promoter. I lease the mineral rights for $X and find investors to fund the drilling. The investors typically pay back 100% - 200% of my costs to date and also a front end prospect bonus (commonly around 20% of the well cost). The well will cost $Y to drill and complete. The investor pay 100% of this amount but only earns 75% of the net revenue. This is called a "quarter carry" in the oil patch. In other words the operator is carried for 25% of the costs. This is quit legal and all explained to the investors up front. Thus even if the well never recovers its cost the operator still makes a profit and a decent living. This is how exploration companies survive. Most exploration efforts are failures. Most companies could not survive if they spent their own money to drill the initial wells.

How well does this work out for the operator? During the late 70's boom I watched one operator drill 18 wells in a joint venture I managed. All 18 wells were non-commercial failures. And the operator and his upper management retired as millionaires. All quit legal. This method thrives upon the greed of investors who will pay anything to "get a piece of the hot action". How much of the Bakken play is driven by good economics and how much by the promoters remains to be seen as the play matures. But the promoters are there. There is a very old creed many promoters follow when it comes to a new booming play: "Roll into town with the first load of whores and run out of town before the first production equipment hits the ground". It is generally a good plan to follow.

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911
USGS: Bakken formation is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation.

The majority of the people on this site are saying that oil will head back over $70/barrel lickety split and probably up to $200, $300 or $500/barrel.
Therefore the Bakken would get fully developed.

So "the Dude" are you projecting oil prices to not go back over $70/barrel ?

Horizontal Fraccing has become economic recently.
thus the 1995 USGS assessment of 151 million barrels of recoverable oil in the Bakken in ND/Montana and the new one with 3.1-4.3 billion barrels.

Delayed oilsand projects just means that the oil stays there until the prices go back up and then they go get the oil. It would mean more gettable oil would be around until after any peak and thus slowing any decline.

Yes, I was extrapolating trends and planned future drilling activity. Just like the original post by Piccolo did.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3868
And Piccolo was way under what has already happened in less than one year.

If you have a projection for the Bakken then put it out there. I say 1 million barrels per day for the US and Canada from the Bakken by the end of 2015 and 2 million barrels per day by the end of 2020. I am willing to put a money bet behind a more conservative number like 600,000 barrels per day by the end of 2015.

On this subject, I was thinking that maybe the User Profile section of TOD could be updated; with fields for Name, Location, Occupation etc. All info optional of course, but if there were specific places for it, maybe more people would fill it out.

When you say we have no choice, that becomes, effectively, an advocation of it, a blessing that it will be necessary. I have spent my life in exploration and have, with the groups I have managed, been involved with discovering just shy of a billion barrels of oil. I have sold international oil deals of up to $40 million dollars, and US deals of up to $50 million (not to mention the $100+ million dollar wells I have been involved in drilling in deep water.

I say all the above just to let you know that I know this business, having spent 39 years in it.

With every merger, the resulting company drilled fewer wells than the previous two independent companies drilled. If you nationalize the oil industry, I will guarantee you that the resulting behemoth will drill fewer wells than the total drilled by the stolen companies (and I use the word stolen properly). People, like your grand parents, Nate, invest in oil companies hoping to maintain their principle and get a few dividends while they live in their old age. But people who talk about nationalization, like you did on that radio show which I listened to last night, don't seem to give a rats rear end about grandpa and grandma. Nationalization steals the money they will live on in retirement. There seems not to be a consideration that such thievery hurts other people. Those thinking nationalization is helpful only think of those to whom the resources are given, and don't think about the impoverishment of those from whom it is stolen.

Now, if your intent is that because all the oil companies go broke we will need to nationalize, them, I am sorry, but it will be too late then to nationalize them. There won't be anything left to take. Why? Because if things get that bad, and there is no bank credit for anything, then there will be no need for oil. No one will be shipping goods and no one will be going to work.

The government simply can't manage capitalist enterprises because they do things for political reasons, not business reasons. Look at Pemex where the government takes 103% of their profits and wants them to drill lots of oil. Chavez nationalizes the food companies in Venezuela because he wants them to sell rice at below cost to the poor in Venezuela. What will happen is that he won't be able to do it either unless he simply steals all the bank deposits and after that--there will be no Venezuelan economy.

Frankly, with the banks being nationalized and forced to do stupid things because of political (not business) reasons, I think any talk of nationalization, as if it is a rational thing is pure and simply nuttery. The government can't even do a decent driver's license bureau much less run a good oil company. (and yes, I have worked with many NOCs)

Of Codelco. And what about the poor investors, grandpa and grandma, whose investments were stolen? I guess we don't have to worry about them, they were rich and they deserve what they got. After all, they shouldn't have been rich in the first place, right?

I also looked up the 2007 annual report for Codelco. They made $8.451 billion in pre-tax profits, but with dividends (presumably to the government) and taxes, and the 10% charge on foreign sales, they were left with $117 million of that profit. (see page 54 of their 2007 annual report. This is nothing more than what Mexico does to Pemex (only Chile left them some crumbs)

Reality: governments and politicians are not good capitalists.