After years of following developments in extraction of light tight oil (LTO) in the Bakken, the oil price, studying actual well production data from the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) and the SEC 10-Q/Ks filings for several companies heavily exposed to the Bakken, a quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth comes to the fore of my mind: All causes shall give way: I am in blood Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er: (Macbeth: Act III, Scene IV) For me the Macbeth quote very much sums up the predicament many Bakken LTO operators now find themselves in. The above chart shows developments by vintage in LTO extraction from the Middle Bakken/ Three Forks/Sanish formations in Bakken (ND) as of January 2008 and of September 2015 [right hand scale]. Figure 01: The color grading shows extraction by month. Development in the oil […]