2,700 People Just Met In Bismarck To Double The Bakken.

The 33rd Annual Williston Basin Petroleum Conference wrapped Day 2 yesterday. 85 speakers. 350 exhibitors. Every major operator with acreage in North Dakota in the same room. The message was unanimous: the Bakken isn't slowing down. It's getting a second life.

They're calling it Bakken 2.0. The idea is CO2 injection — pumping carbon dioxide underground to push oil out of rock that conventional drilling can't touch. It's called Enhanced Oil Recovery. The technology already works. What it's never had is the money to prove it at Bakken scale. Until now.

The Investment

• $36,000,000 — U.S. Department of Energy Grant
• $45,100,000 — State of North Dakota Oil and Gas Research Council
• $76,000,000 — Private Investment From Bakken Operators
• $157,000,000 — Total. Phase One. Starting This Year.

North Dakota is producing 1.13 million barrels of oil every single day right now with 26 rigs running. The companies behind Bakken 2.0 say conventional drilling has only recovered about 10% of the oil in the ground. EOR targets the other 90%.

Let that sink in. We've been out here busting our backs for 75 years and we haven't even scratched the surface of what's down there.

And That's Not All

WBI Energy's Bakken East Pipeline is moving. A 400-mile natural gas line from Watford City to Fargo. $3 billion in construction. WBI entered FERC's pre-filing environmental review in February under docket PF26-4-000. The certificate application itself is not expected until later this year. Mainline construction targeted for 2028. When that pipe goes in the ground, it keeps Bakken gas off the flare stack and keeps operators drilling.

The field built every barrel of production that put North Dakota on the map. That work isn't done. This is your state. This is your industry. And it's got more runway than most people realize.