Possible Oil Shale in South Dakota | Video

Jennifer Joas | 12/14/2012

After horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing cracked open the Bakken formation and exposed hundreds of barrels of oil per day, the appeal of oil is growing across the country. South Dakota is one state that believes it may have an oil formation, so a state geologist is trying to attract companies to travel south.

South Dakota wants more than four famous faces. The state geologist believes they may have undiscovered oil.

"We are looking at the old historic data and were seeing these reports of tight formations that had oil in them, but they blew them off as not being economic because they didn`t understand how they could possibly be produced," said Derric Iles, South Dakota State Geologist.

Drilling activity did take place during the 1940s and 50s. That is when the state learned about its tight formation and recovered oil-stained rock. Iles also says more test wells need to be drilled in the region. South Dakota may have more oil just beneath the surface, but they need to encourage oil companies to drill for it.

"I do not believe that it has been fully explored. So I think the jury is still out on some of these rock units. So that gives me hope for the future," said Iles.

South Dakota currently produces about 1.6 million barrels of oil per year, which the Bakken can produce in just a few days.

South Dakota isn`t the only state with possible oil resources. There could be a total of 25 additional oil shales in the U.S. alone that are still undiscovered. Join us on Monday, December 17, for that story.

COMMENT ON THIS STORY