North Dakotans are very familiar with the Bakken formation, and industry leaders nationwide consider it to be one of the best oil plays in the U.S. It covers approximately 25,000 square miles in western North Dakota and eastern Montana, and its wells produce rich, high-quality sweet crude oil.

But a new player has emerged in the North Dakota oil game: the Three Forks-Sanish formation. Three Forks, as it is widely known, lies directly below the Bakken zone.

“There has been a lot of interest and a lot of attention to the Three Forks,” said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, a Bismarck- based group that represents about 160 companies. “Companies that are doing business here are very interested. It is still all about the Bakken, but the Three Forks has created a new level of interest.”

State geologist Ed Murphy explains that new level of interest has spurred a number of companies and organizations to conduct research to learn more about the characteristics and potential of the Three Forks formation.

Oil companies are likely running their own studies, and the North Dakota Geological Survey is studying geophysical logs and oil cores from the Three Forks and Bakken formations to determine how these layers of rocks relate to one another,”

Murphy said. “In addition, the North Dakota Industrial Commission, through the North Dakota Oil and Gas Research Council, recently awarded a grant to offset the costs of drilling a Three Forks horizontal well beneath an existing middle Bakken horizontal well to observe pressure changes and changes in the oil production rates between the two wells to determine whether the reservoirs are connected at that site.”

Murphy said that companion wells such as this will generate valuable in- formation. “Although companies can run 3-D (three dimensional) seismic and generate a number of maps and cross-sections using existing data, when it comes down to it, there is no good substitute to drilling an oil well,” Murphy said.

“Even marginally producing wells or dry holes generate valuable information at the beginning of a new play. So every well that is drilled into the Three Forks will tell us more about the characteristics and the potential of the reservoir.”

If research shows that Three Forks has potential similar to the Bakken, experts agree that the potential may play well into the future of oil in North Dakota. “From a state (of North Dakota) standpoint, whether that oil is recovered from the Bakken or the Three Forks, if you are getting more oil, you are getting more investment in North Dakota,” said Ness. “More tax revenues, more jobs, more permanent jobs, which brings kids back to our schools, which delivers more economic activity in western North Dakota and across the state. It really extends and expands the entire value of the oil play in North Dakota.”

“The Three Forks-Sanish formation offers significant potential for the oil industry and all the businesses directly associated with it,” State Commerce Commissioner Shane Goettle said. “But we are seeing in western North Dakota that so many other businesses are favorably impacted by increased oil activity, including hotels and restaurants, all of the typical Main street businesses such as clothing stores, car dealerships and grocery stores, as well as home builders, contractors and trades such as plumbing and electrical. The spin-off from increased oil activity is significant throughout the business community.”

Ness also adds that additional oil production in the state may help to buffer the areas from fluctuating oil prices. “I think it translates to less boom-bust cycling for the state,” Ness said. “If you get more oil wells on the ground, you may still have some volatilities, but you have elevated the entire size of the workforce. The more wells you have in place, the more stable that employment becomes.

“Expanding the play may lead to more companies coming here providing good services,” Ness said. “The bigger and the longer term you can make this, the more likely you are going to see regional service companies here rather than in Casper, Wyo., or other places where they have had their regional headquarters. Getting those types of facilities here would lead to more long-term permanent jobs.”

Once an oil well is drilled, it is typically in place, producing oil for 25-40 years. “The well is like a storefront,” Ness said. “It needs to be tended to. And those are the types of jobs that are going to be taken by people living in those rural communities.”

Julie LeFever, a geologist with the state Geological Survey in Grand Forks who has studied the Bakken formation for more than two decades, explains that time will tell with this formation. “It has more conventional porosity and permeability, so it may be easier to produce than the Bakken. But how it will compare overall, I think it is too early to tell.”

Story by JESSE BRADLEY