North Dakota's horizontal Bakken play is white hot in the vicinity of EOG Resources Inc.'s Parshall Field, a 50- to 70-million-barrel (net) gem discovered by the Houston-based operator in 2006 in Mountrail County, east of the huge Nesson Anticline in the eastern Williston Basin.

These are amazing wells, capable of producing at initial rates of more than 1,500 barrels of oil and 400,000 cubic feet of gas per day. In Parshall, EOG currently has 13 producing single-lateral horizontal wells, three in progress and 22 permitted locations.

In a presentation at a recent investor conference, the company noted that a typical producer (measured depth of 15,000 feet) cost $5.25 million and tapped gross reserves of 900,000 barrels of oil. Bakken reservoir characteristics are analogous to the Barnett shale in the Fort Worth Basin, and Bakken oil-in-place is 9 million barrels per section, the company reported.

Happily, it holds 130,000 net acres of leases. It has four rigs at work and plans to jump that to eight by next year.

The resource potential of the Williston's Devonian-Mississippian Bakken shale is indeed staggering: estimates of volumes of oil generated have ranged up to 503 billion barrels, according to the North Dakota Geological Survey.

The most recent published report pegged the volume at 300 billion barrels.

And, due to its specific geology, oil generated in the Bakken appears to have stayed in the Bakken. The amount of recoverable oil is not yet established, but estimates range from 3% to as much as 50%.

Whatever the final outcome, it's unquestionable that the Bakken is a moneymaker at Parshall. EOG reported direct finding costs of $7.50 a barrel.

Denver-based Whiting Petroleum Corp. also works the play. It has drilled two producers and plans 18 additional tests in its Robinson Lake project in Mountrail County between Parshall and the Nesson Anticline. Its Peery State #11-25H, a trilateral Middle Bakken discovery, was completed for an initial rate of 1,061 barrels of oil and 1 million cubic feet of gas per day. Whiting has 81,000 net acres at Robinson Lake. Additionally, it owns 13,000 net acres in Parshall, which gives it an average 20% interest in EOG's burgeoning field.

Austin, Texas-based independent Brigham Exploration Co. is another firm busy in the Bakken. The company recently grew its position in Mountrail County to more than 22,000 net acres. Brigham will participate with small working interests in several high-profile Bakken tests, and plans to spud an operated well just north of Parshall this fall. In total, the company now holds approximately 80,000 net acres in North Dakota.

The other locus of Bakken activity is along the storied Nesson Anticline. Last fall, Dallas-based independent Petro-Hunt LLC completed USA #2D-3-1H in Charlson Field, McKenzie County, for 729 barrels of oil and 785,000 cubic feet of gas per day. It features a single open-hole lateral that extends 3,200 feet into the Bakken. According to IHS Inc., the well made 175,000 barrels of oil and 183 million cubic feet of gas in its first eight months online. Petro-Hunt has an extensive drilling campaign under way.

For its part, Continental Resources Inc., Enid, Oklahoma, plans to spend $71 million in 2007 pursing North Dakota's Bakken oil. Continental has also focused its efforts along the Nesson Anticline, and its 288,000-acre spread stretches north and south along the great feature.

Last year, it formed a joint venture with ConocoPhillips to explore for Bakken, and the partners have been making wells with initial potentials that range from 246 to 519 barrels of oil per day. The top producer is Brown #44-1H, in the central portion of the anticline in eastern McKenzie County. This well has made 20,000 barrels of oil in its first two months online. Currently, Continental is operating two rigs and ConocoPhillips is running three.

Continental has reported that a dual-lateral well costs $4.2 million; a single lateral well, $3.66 million. For both well types, it estimated per-well recoveries at about 260,000 barrels of oil and 330 million cubic feet of gas.

Marathon Oil Corp. is deep into the fray as well. The Houston-based major has 200,000 net acres in the Williston, mainly in North Dakota, and thinks more than 65% of its holdings are highly prospective. It is actively drilling.

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