Private wrote:
I just found this on another forum, facts not verified, no commentary made.

Huge Dakota oil pool could change energy climate debate


Eh. I lived around there, had friends who went off to work in the North
Dakota oil fields a time or two. Every time petroleum goes through the
roof in price, someone reopens the oil shale fields, which require an
astronomical amount of work and expenditure to wring oil from the rock.

Then when the price goes down the projects are immediately dropped. It's
costly, messy and just barely worth the trouble even when the fuel's
literally black gold.

And this report is only an estimate, in location thoroughly probed for
many years...and even IT calls the invisible resources "technically
recoverable," basically admitting that it would take a good deal of
technical processing, some of it pretty speculative, to squeeze oil out
of those cold fields.

Don't take it from me: take it from the local folks.
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/414164