Peace Garden News

Senator John Hoeven has expressed support for the North Dakota Industrial Commission’s recent approval of $45.1 million in state funding to advance enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the Bakken region. This allocation is part of the Crack the Code 2.0 initiative, which aims to increase oil recovery and extend the operational life of coal-fired power plants by fostering collaboration between North Dakota’s oil and coal industries.

Hoeven, who serves on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Committee, is seeking up to $50 million in federal funding for this project. So far, he has helped secure $12 million in federal funds that enabled the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) and Chord Energy to conduct 18 months of research on injecting CO2 and natural gas liquids into unconventional oil reservoirs as a method for EOR.

He has also received commitments from Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy Kyle Haustveit to partner with North Dakota and increase support from the Department of Energy for this initiative. Combined with state funding, these efforts are expected to leverage $76 million in private investment, bringing total project funding to about $171 million.

Additionally, Hoeven worked to ensure that provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill (OB3) align with incentives under the 45Q tax credit program. This adjustment is intended to make EOR a commercially viable option for improving oil recovery in the Bakken while creating an additional revenue stream for coal producers, supporting continued operation of coal power plants.

“EOR is a longtime proven technology. North Dakota demonstrates that every day through the Dakota Gasification Company, which has been providing CO2 to the Weyburn Field in Canada for EOR for 25 years. Now through Crack the Code 2.0, we’re working to bring this technique to the Bakken to benefit both our oil and coal industries, and today’s funding from the North Dakota Industrial Commission is an important step in that effort,” said Hoeven. “The back-end of this project is already taken care of, as the corrections we made to tax incentives in the One Big Beautiful Bill provide a solid, long-term foundation for using EOR in the Bakken. In addition, we’ve already provided $12 million in federal research funding for EERC and Chord Energy to get this project going on the front-end. We’re working to bring that number up to $50 million to make this initiative a reality, and I look forward to continuing my efforts with Energy Secretary Wright and his team at DOE to do just that.”