Elm Coulee Oil Field

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." [ [http://archive.bigskybusiness.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1504 "Wall Street Journal", quoted in "Big Sky Business Journal"] .] By 2007, the field had become one of the 20 largest oil fields in the United States. [ [http://www.mines.edu/Research/PTTC/newsletters/volume%209/v9n2p4.html Petroleum Technology Transfer Council Newsletter, Vol. 9, 2006] . ] [ [http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/data_publications/crude_oil_natural_gas_reserves/current/pdf/appb.pdf Energy Information Administration list of top 100 oil fields] .]

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. [ [http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2006/06131walker/images/walker.pdf Elm Coulee Field, Middle Bakken Member, by Bill Walker, Al Powell, Dick Rollins, and Ron Shaffer, 2006] .]

In 2006, Elm Coulee was producing about convert|53000|oilbbl|m3 of oil per day from more than 350 wells. Ultimate production is expected to exceed 270 million barrels (45 million m³), [ [http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/2006/06131walker/index.htm Elm Coulee Field] .] with some estimates as high as 500 million barrels (80 million m³). [ [http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntn64955.htm USGS estimates of Bakken oil production] .] Production at Elm Coulee has more than doubled the oil output of the state of Montana. [ [http://www.montanastandard.com/articles/2007/12/02/state/hjjcihjhjighgf.txt Jennifer McKee, Montana "Standard" State Bureau, Dec. 2, 2007] .]

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