The Russian Bakken -- Re-Visited

Updates

December 8, 2012: an update on the Bazhenov, and comparing it to the Bakken. Quite a story. 

Original Post

There have been a lot of headlines at Rigzone, others regarding Rosneft, most of which I don't follow. My mistake. Here's a story I missed:

Bazhenov’s geology is similar to North Dakota’s Bakken shale, where crude oil production has more than doubled in two years.  

As part of the alliance with Exxon, Moscow-based Rosneft in April said it acquired a 30 percent stake in a Texas tight oil project to gain experience with the technology.  

“The in-place potential is enormous -- billions of barrels,” Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson said in an April 18, 2012, conference call. “The real issue is can we develop it in a cost effective way? -- same as the issue we have with tight oil and unconventional resources in North America.”  

Exxon will be able to book reserves in a mature oil province without taking on the exploration or environment risk it faces in its offshore projects with Rosneft, which will require an initial $3.2 billion investment to explore in the Arctic Kara Sea and the Black Sea.  

While Exxon and European rivals such as Statoil ASA have generated more media interest in their projects to develop virgin deposits in the Arctic by the 2020s, fracking Soviet-era Siberian wells may yield crude sooner.

I posted a story about the Bazhenov in June, 2012.

I believe "Bazhenov" (pronounced "Baa-ze-nof" with stress on first syllable, least stress on middle syllable) is Russian for "Bakken."

Just joking.