The expression “you find oil where you found oil” has never been more relevant than what’s at play now in the Williston Basin. Following a boom in the 2010s that witnessed a fevered descent of oil field workers in the fresh age of shale plays, the once-mighty Bakken began its decline in 2015. Two years later, a Forbes article declared the Bakken all but mummified, writing “It’s the beginning of the end for the Bakken Shale play” and “…probably not reversible.”  

Not so fast, cowboy.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest from N.D., where Crack the Code 2.0 looks to double oil recovery rate in the Bakken by an additional 5 Bbbls applying advanced EOR techniques using captured CO2 from coal-fired power plants. Call it a win-win. The initiative has gained $41.5 million in state funding as of October on top of a $12 million award to kickstart research and viability studies. Federal and state funding will be used to leverage $76 million in private investment.

Meet Lynn Helms, former director of N.D.’s Department of Mineral Resources who led the state’s oil and gas industry for 26 years. Fresh from retirement, he’s returned to work for the formation he knows better than anyone as an architect for Crack the Code 2.0. What’s been called an oil breakthrough, Helms describes this effort as “every bit as big as when staged fracking unlocked the Bakken.” Operators here tend to agree. So do we.