North Dakota Eyes Five Billion More Barrels

A $150M coalition and renewed DOE deal push CO2 injection pilots in the Bakken, targeting five billion stranded barrels

14 Apr 2026

North Dakota's push to recover stranded Bakken oil moved forward in February when the University of North Dakota's Energy and Environmental Research Center signed a renewed five-year agreement with the US Department of Energy, securing $25m for CO2 injection pilot projects. The deal anchors the broader Crack the Code 2.0 initiative, which has assembled more than $150m in combined federal, state, and industry funding.

The potential prize is substantial. Current extraction methods recover only 10 to 15 per cent of the Bakken's oil in place. The initiative targets techniques that could double that rate, potentially unlocking an estimated five billion additional barrels. EERC and Chord Energy have already completed 18 months of joint field and laboratory work, testing CO2 and natural gas liquids injection into Bakken rock ahead of the pilot phase.

CO2-enhanced oil recovery is well established in conventional reservoirs such as the Permian Basin. Adapting it to tight shale formations is the harder problem. DOE officials argue the Bakken's layered geology offers a structural advantage: surrounding shale acts as a natural containment barrier, keeping injected CO2 within the target zone.

The financial case has also shifted. Revised 45Q tax credits now offer equal incentives for CO2 used in enhanced recovery and CO2 directed to permanent storage, removing a policy tilt that had previously favoured pure sequestration. That change has drawn interest from US operators monitoring the Bakken pilots.

Whether CO2 injection can work at commercial scale in tight shale remains unproven. Preliminary field data are encouraging, but the pilot phase will test whether results hold under full operating conditions. The durability of the 45Q framework under future administrations adds a further variable for operators weighing long-term capital commitments.