Bakken growth continues

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has predicted that the Bakken Shale formation will be producing a million barrels of oil a day as soon as this December. Reaching that milestone will bring the Bakken into oil producing ranks currently occupied by the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin, both in Texas. The International Energy Agency (IEA) also predicts that the U.S. will overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia in oil production by 2015, but will start to decrease after 2025. The rest of the article can be found here from the Wall Street Journal Blogs. In addition, the IEA has predicted that, with the increase in oil from North America, the need for oil from the Middle East will be reduced. However, because of the decline that they are predicting after 2025, the IEA’s Chief Economist Fatih Birol says that it will still be important to protect the relationships that have been established with the Middle East because they will continue to be very important in the global oil picture for years to come. Read more about Birol’s interview in the Dickinson Press.