Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Dear Wealth Daily Reader,

The NY Times calls it "one of the largest oil finds in US history."

The US Dept. of Energy says it "could increase crude oil in America by billions of barrels."

Some analysts estimate it contains as much as 503 billion barrels of light, sweet oil-enough to fuel the American economy for decades on end.

In the coming weeks, the US Geological Survey will release a new report revising the estimated oil reserves in the basin known as "The Bakken."

When the news breaks, these 3 stocks could shoot up several hundred percent.

The report below provides details on one of the best moneymaking strategies for 2008.

I urge you to take advantage.

Good investing,


Brian Hicks
Publisher, Wealth Daily



In the coming weeks, the U.S. Geological Survey will release a major study on the 'Bakken' formation, in what's being hailed as the most significant find since Alberta's Pembina Cardium play in 1957




It's 5.3X the proven reserves of Exxon, Gazprom, Chevron and ConocoPhillips combined... Twice the size of Saudi Arabia's Ghawar oil field...


When the U.S.G.S. study is released, the 3 companies already drilling there will explode



Dear reader,

In Richland County, Montana - about 470 miles outside the state capitol of Helena - America's greatest wealth boom is fast - and secretly - underway.

To get right to the point...

It's the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil.

Some estimates peg it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, Montana is looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

"When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea." says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.

"This sizeable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years," reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

In this letter, I'm going to tell you everything that I've learned about the Bakken discovery, why it is still a secret, who's involved, and - more importantly - how to profit from it. Especially before the rest of the investment community finds out.

Mark my words, an opportunity like this only comes around once every so often and I can GUARANTEE that this will not remain a secret for much longer.

In fact, some of the local media are beginning to report on it...

"People in the region 'are just starting to see the potential' in this new oil play" - Grand Forks Herald, Nov. 4, 2007


"The huge potential of the Bakken play has industry and government officials gushing with superlatives." -CanWest News Service, Dec. 10, 2007

"Montanan residents with oil royalties have, literally, been made millionaires." -Missoulian.com, Dec. 2, 2007

The Billings Gazette says... "The oil field has made millionaires out of ordinary Montanans, has swollen state coffers and ushered in a new philosophy of oil prospecting worldwide."

And the Grand Forks Herald reports... there's "going to be a lot of millionaires." - November 2007
As we all know - the people who make the most money are the people who get in first.

And for the shareholders of oil companies that make huge, new discoveries, the potential payoff is mind-blowing.

There are several companies that have seen similar situations to the Bakken - of course on a far smaller scale - and have rallied hundreds of percent in just a few months. If these companies can see their stock prices increase by 300%, 400% or even 500% with oil discoveries of 1 or 2 billion barrels... just imagine what a discovery of up to 500 billion barrels of oil would do to a stock's price!

One energy study I've read estimates 400 million barrels, of which any where from 3% to 50% are recoverable (12 million to 200 million barrels,
depending who you're talking to). The governor of N. Dakota had a symposium to discuss the biggest problem...Transportation of recoverable oil...
I think some of the particapants plan to leave a lot of the wells shut-in, until something is resolved...Like a pipeline. Personally I'd watch this, but
I wouldn't lay any money down just yet.

In Brian Hicks sales letter he mentioned two stocks"The other 2 Bakken companies I've uncovered are true "wildcatter" plays... with the potential to return investors 100-to-1 on their money. They currently trade for $7 and $5 a share, respectively."
Does anyone know who they are?? Thanks for any help here ! Great site and super reading ! Im always enjoy my visit to the Gumshoe!!

"The third opportunity to take advantage of the next great American oil boom is through an independent exploration, development and production company that utilizes a revolutionary 3-D seismic imaging technology to systematically explore and develop domestic oil and gas reserve."

Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) is opportunity #3

http://www.bexp3d.com/index.html

Here's an interesting piece from Seeking Alpha on Bakken, which mentions EOG, Petrobank and Marathon, as well as a couple of others of interest:

The Bakken Trend, located in the giant Williston basin that covers a part of South Dakota, most of North Dakota, at least a third of Montana, a smidgeon of Manitoba and the Southeast corner of Saskatchewan. The Bakken is truly huge.
Oil companies, including the majors, have known for some time that oil exists in the Bakken, but the problem was getting it out. The few wells that were drilled in the years prior to 1996 produced some oil but soon “Gave up the Ghost”, so to speak. The majors, such as Shell (RDS.A), left and put their money into the Gulf of Mexico. Geologists had come to believe that the Bakken oil had migrated elsewhere and where was anyone’s guess.
Then the stuff of legends came, along with one geochemist by the name of L. C. Price. Mr. Price, working for the US Geological Survey [USGS] performed extensive chemical analysis of abandoned oil wells, primarily in North Dakota and came away with an astonishing conclusion—The Bakken trend contains up to 200 billion to 500 billion, yes that is with a “B”, of original oil in place.
Price turned in his report to the USGS in 1999 and the USGS started its own review of Price’s work. Price died in 2002 with the USGS still holding onto his report and refusing to release the findings of Price and the USGS Review.
Like the German immigrant miner, Jacob Walz, who claimed he had found the legendary gold of the Supersticion Mountains, Price died without vindication of his fantastic claim, like the Lost Dutchmen mine itself, the Bakken oil remained elusive and to some illusory, the stuff that makes a good story around bars filled with oil men.
To add to the legend, the USGS, 9 years later, still has refused to release Price’s report and their review of Price’s work citing, “Price’s unorthodox approach”. Even Federal Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota couldn’t pry the USGS loose with a demand for release of the two reports.

But then comes along oil geologist Richard Findley. Now the seeds of legend grow stronger. Findley, a highly competent geologist with a strong penchant for independent work, suffered for years scrimping by financially unable to interest anyone with money to invest in his ideas. Financial matters were so bad for Findley that Findley came close to leaving the oil business entirely.
True to the stuff of legends, he didn’t.
Findley reviewed old drilling logs and old seismic data from abandoned wells and fields in the Bakken. Findley, in a moment of true inspirational genius came to the conclusion that all other attempts at the Bakken had missed the oil source entirely and had drilled right through it bypassing the oil that lies between two shale layers. Findley got Lycos Energy of Houston interested in the theory and Lycos brought in Halliburton to try at that time new techniques of horizontal drilling and fracturing.
What Findley, Lycos and Halliburton discovered is the Elm Coulee Field in eastern Montana. Elm Coulee now pumps 45,000 to 50,000 barrels a day of light sweet crude, real Texas T, at a 40 to 42 degree API.

Further research reveals that other analysis by geochemists and geologists not associated with the USGS confirm that Price was in essence correct. The estimates range from a low of 10 billion barrels to confirmation of Price’s 200 to 500 billion barrel estimate. After Findley and company’s 1997 discovery of the Elm Coulee one would think the rush would be on, but It wasn’t and didn’t in the U.S. But Canada was a little different story.

In Manitoba, Canadian oil companies drilled in the Daley/Bakken field and came up a winner with small but commercially viable oil production. In Saskatchewan, Canadian companies came up with the same only larger pools of oil. For the last several years Southeast Saskatchewan has been the only growth business for oil rig and drilling companies in Canada. The drilling activity is hot and will get hotter with infill and step out drilling alone as well as exploration drilling.

But finally, it now appears that the Bakken Rush is finally on in the U.S. as well as in Canada.

In Canada, there have been new entrants such as Petrobank (PBEGF.PK), Pennant Petroleum (PENFF.PK) and heavy consolidation with larger companies such as Crescent Point Energy Trust (CPGCF.PK) buying up the smaller players such as Inova.



(continued)

Hey, you got me runnin', to quote Jimmy Reed. I think I've found another Bakken play, based on stock price and Bakken connection: Teton Energy (TEC). So I like the idea suggested by the Seeking Alpha writer, which is to grab both a big player or two and a couple of small fry. This thing is too big not to have some sort of dog (or even a pack) in the hunt.

Looking at these Bakken-play companies more carefully, I'm not sure Teton (TEC) is worth the risk. Check out their latest filing: http://www.secinfo.com/dsvrp.t1bd.d.htm. There are no working wells yet in the Bakken region yet, though obviously there is potential. EOG, Petrobank and Whiting look like better prospects, even though some of the growth is already priced in. (I think the guys at Petrobank are among the smartest in the business, and I've owned shares for ages.) I don't like Marathon in general because of their environmental policies, so I'm not offering an opinion on their Bakken prospects. As for Brigham, it's located in my hometown, and I haven't been impressed with their management. So this is just one opinion. Don't let me keep you from wildcatting.

NOG is stock number 1. I found the exact quote given in the tease on NOg's website, and it is $7.17 now.

Montana Millionaire Opportunity #1 is Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NOG) they closed at $8.18 today, so it's up $1.18 in the last few trading days.

Montana Millionaire Opportunity #3 is Brigham Exploration Company (BEXP) they closed at $7.06 today and are up from $5.97 five days ago.

Not sure who the second opportunity is just yet! Any ideas?

Hey WWP...the Bakken Play has many sides to it...and "involved"...I just want to register my thanks for the time you spent in un-ravelling things. Much appreciated.

my bad only 3.65 billion barrels of oil

The US Geological Survey (USGS) released a report on the Bakken Shale formation, which covers Montana and North Dakota. They estimated 3 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable oil exists in the play. In fact, they stated it was the largest continuous oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS and is larger than any other oil assessment it has made in the contiguous U.S. The new estimate for recoverable oil represents a 25-fold increase since their last report in 1995, which estimated 151 million barrels of recoverable oil. To date, 105 million barrels of oil has been produced from the Bakken.

. Aside from the sheer size of the recoverable oil they've identified, the fact that they believe it to be a "continuous" oil accumulation is possibly even more important. They believe the oil resource is dispersed throughout the formation rather than existing as discrete, localized deposits. This is very bullish news for companies with leverage to the Bakken Shale such as CLR (~340K net acres), EOG (~175K net acres), WLL (~96K net acres), BEXP (~88K net acres), and KOG (~30K net acres).

Resource Summary
The USGS assessed undiscovered oil and associated
gas resources in five continuous (unconventional) AUs and one conventional AU for the Bakken Formation
(fig. 2; table 1). For continuous oil resources, the USGS estimated a total mean resource of 3.65 billion barrels of oil, which combines means of 410 million barrels in the Elm Coulee–Billings Nose AU, 485 million barrels in the Central Basin–Poplar Dome AU, 909 million barrels in the Nesson–Little Knife Structural
AU, 973 million barrels in the Eastern Expulsion Threshold AU, and 868 million barrels in the Northwest
Expulsion Threshold AU. A mean resource of 4 million barrels was estimated for the conventional Middle Sandstone Member AU.
The assessment of the Bakken Formation indicates
that most of the undiscovered oil resides within a continuous composite reservoir that is distributed across the entire area of the oil generation window (fig. 2) and includes all members of the Bakken Formation. At the time of this assessment, only a limited number of wells have produced from the Bakken continuous reservoir in the Central Basin–Poplar Dome AU, the Eastern Expulsion Threshold AU, and the Northwest Expulsion Threshold AU. Therefore, there is significant geologic uncertainty in these estimates, which is reflected in the range of estimates for oil (table 1).

So far the touts seem to be mostly ignoring the Canadian side of the Bakken. I've been doing some nosing around there, and in addition to Petrobank, I've found that Tristar (TOG in Canada, TOGSF in U.S.) has an interesting position there. Check out their chart. (Wish I'd found them a lot sooner.) Just thought I'd point it out, for all to do their due diligence.

TOG-T is strong with 5 out of 5 technicals positive. Top of trading range is 17 Canadian so you may want to tranche into this one. On its way to 35.25 Canadian.

More news on Bakken cos. Northern Oil & Gas (NOG) has seen some interesting insider action. One director bought about $700,000 worth of shares at $9, but more importantly, two other insiders sold $18 million worth. So it would indicate the possibility that NOG's payoff may be pretty far in the future, with the more impatient insiders wanting to cash in now.

My understanding is that Bakken is "real" liquid oil, not oil shale. Am I in error?

WWP, Yes that would be the Roan Plateau on the Colorado western slopes. The company was Royal Dutch Shell which he has as a hold now and up 18%.

I do have some Congress paranoia especially with energy. Maybe this Senate meddling in oil shale will not spread, maybe so. "They so love their meddling," and it might give me a chill if I were an oil shale company /owner/investor. Envirnmentalists and NIMBY may be seriously winning the fossil fuel needs feud with this congress I think.

Anyway I just thought I'd pass some of todays reading along to this thread. Perhaps just something to watch and be aware of. Just FYI.

When this first came up I took a shot with NOG because of the environmental factor and it seemed to have a better drilling success record than KOG who has holdings in WY. I was feeling pretty good about my selection but now you've got me worried. Oh well, back to researching Singapore and Switzerland. Btw does anyone know what all the buzz over PDO is about?

Thanks very much. That's helpful, but you forgot to post the link unless I read it too fast.

Indeed! I forgot to post the link. It is called the confidential well file for North Dakota. This means the well listings are public information but the the data after drilling will not be released until after a certain time period, as seen in the list.
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/confidential.asp

This is from a Cleantech report-
The latest USGS report only points to as much as 4.3 billion barrels accessible with today's technology. That's a far cry from 500 billion barrels, but is still a 25-fold increase over the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels, and is therefore an increase of some 6 percent in the total U.S. national recoverable oil estimates. Further oil technology innovation could potentially unlock more of the reserve, experts say, but at significant cost.

Getting at the Bakken oil is apparently expensive and difficult, and potentially as damaging to the surrounding landscape and environment as the Alberta oil sands projects, they say.

Drilling must be done down, and then horizontally, through rock, which has to be fractured with pressurized fluid and sand to release the oil tucked away in microscopic pores. So it's about as intensive to get to as the oil locked away in the sands of Alberta.

Notwithstanding buyer exhuberance, if these are in fact 'the facts', what is the general feeling of those more knowledgeable of the real actual investment value given this information?

rbcn I am in the area please email me crcjunior@yahoo.com Thanks

Hey, Mxlplytx! Drilling a Bakken well is not difficult, expensive, yes, because cost are rising for all drilling operations. But the drilling is straight-forward. The "damage" is not different than a vertical well, even less because you drill from one pad and go in different directions. One, two, three, four etc. laterals, thus averting mulitple drilling as in conventional straight-hole wells. Fewer roads, well pads, production and post-production intrusions. There is no comparison to the Alberta oil sands. Also, for bull. What majors are drilling in this country? Shell came back to the Rockies 4 years ago (the Pinedale area, Wyoming) and drill as any major, higher costs and less production. The smaller companies got on board early and the acreage is taken. So what is happening is that companies are stepping out of the known areas and buying land further away from the comfort zone. But no one really knows the extent of this play. You have to use the best tool for finding oil and that is the drill bit.