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changing that,” said John Harju, vice president for strategic partnerships at the EERC.

“One is enhanced oil recovery; that’s injecting something to mobilize the oil. The other is refracturing,” or returning to older wells that had been fracked in the recent past.

Those technologies haven’t revolutionized Bakken drilling yet. “Both are very much in their nascent stages,” Harju said.

Meanwhile, oil companies have coped with the lower price of oil by becoming more efficient. While it used to cost $11 million to drill and complete a well, now it costs $6 million, for example. What used to take 40 days now can be done in 15.

As a coping mechanism, “spending less seems to work pretty well,” Harju joked.

But through it all, the research by UND, the EERC, private companies and other parties continues.

Now, tantalizing results are starting to show: “Williston Basin refracturing pilot shows promise for older Bakken wells,” read a NaturalGasIntel.com headline in April.

Expect such advances to continue, especially when the global price of oil climbs. Because the tiny percentage of oil given up by the Bakken rock is a problem; and as Julian Simon wrote in 1998, “in a free society, solutions are eventually found.” PB

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