Peace Garden News

Senator John Hoeven hosted U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright at the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center for a discussion focused on enhancing oil recovery in the Bakken region through new partnerships between coal and oil producers. The event brought together state leaders, including Representative Julie Fedorchak and Governor Kelly Armstrong, along with local officials and university representatives.

The roundtable centered on provisions from the One Big Beautiful Bill (OB3), which aims to align incentives to support collaboration between coal and oil sectors. The primary goals discussed were doubling both the oil recovery rate in the Bakken formation and extending the operational lifespan of coal-fired power plants.

Hoeven highlighted that adjustments made to the 45Q tax credit are designed to encourage using carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery, making it a more commercially viable option in the Bakken. This method, already employed in conventional oil fields such as when Dakota Gasification Company supplies CO2 to Canada’s Weyburn Field, is seen as a proven way to increase extraction rates. Currently, oil recovery from the Bakken ranges from 5% to 15%, leaving significant reserves untapped. Total production from the Bakken has exceeded 5 billion barrels, with EOR technology offering potential access to an additional 5 billion barrels.

“In North Dakota, we originally cracked the code in the Bakken by advancing a legal, tax and regulatory environment that enabled the deployment of the latest greatest technologies to access previously unavailable oil reserves. This empowered innovative companies to come into the state and develop oil and gas from shale formations on a commercially-viable basis. For example, through his former company, Liberty Energy, Secretary Wright played a key role in making North Dakota an energy powerhouse by bringing new hydraulic fracturing technologies to market,” said Hoeven. “Now we have him in the state once again in his new role as Secretary of Energy as we crack the code on the Bakken for the second time, bringing together our oil and coal industries to not only double our recovery rate in the Bakken, but also double the life of our coal plants. That means more affordable energy and a more reliable grid, which is a recipe for true U.S. energy dominance.”

The OB3 legislation includes measures intended to advance U.S. energy independence both regionally and nationally. These steps involve expanding access to federal reserves by mandating quarterly lease sales for oil and gas and requiring prompt action on new coal lease applications. Additionally, OB3 would open leasing on another 4 million acres of federal coal reserves.

Other provisions aim to reverse policies established under recent federal initiatives such as stopping implementation of fees on oil and gas production enacted by previous legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act for ten years—a measure Hoeven led opposition against in the Senate—and restoring royalty rates for fossil fuel production back to levels before those changes were implemented.