Deep under the northern Badlands, trapped tightly in dense layers of shale, there is oil. Perhaps hundreds of billions of barrels of it.
Geologists have known about a vast blanket of rock called the Bakken Formation for more than half a century. So the question isn’t whether high-quality crude really exists in a region not commonly associated with drilling rigs: North Dakota, eastern Montana and the southern parts of two Canadian provinces.
The question is, how tough is it to get at this oil? A long-anticipated federal report on the subject is expected today.
Read the full story at KansasCity.com.