Interview with North Dakota Tax Commissioner Brian Kroshus
Interview with North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness
(BISMARCK, ND) – North Dakota Tax Commissioner Brian Kroshus, Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) CEO Charlie Gorecki and North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness joined Continental Resources Vice President John Argo in presenting to the North Dakota Senate Appropriations – Education and Environment Division Committee at the North Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck Tuesday.
The group testified on Senate Bill 2014.
“In the 68th Legislative Session, we approved House Bill 1492, which to undertake a study related to the evaluation of environmental, social and governance trends,” Senator Dale Patten said. “We are an energy producing state.”
Gorecki said it’s estimated that the Bakken has between 100 billion and one trillion barrels of oil.
“To date, we have produced five billion barrels out of the Bakken,” he said.
Kroshus told committee members that North Dakota is not the only state looking at taking advantage of using CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). He said the state has ‘tremendous potential’ from a revenue standpoint.
“We are positioned well, but there are variables that we will want to look at and improve upon as well,” he said.
Ness said North Dakota could be a leader in the space.
Earlier Tuesday, The North Dakota Tax Commissioner’s Office and EERC released reports that forecast the economic potential of CO₂-enhanced oil recovery (CO₂-EOR) in North Dakota. These studies underscore the state’s strategic advantages in leveraging CO₂ utilization to drive sustainable energy production, economic growth and environmental benefits over the next 20 years.
CO₂-EOR could unlock an additional 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of oil over the next 30–50 years, doubling the Bakken Formation’s production milestones, as well as it could generate $2.9 billion to $9 billion in incremental revenue primarily from oil and gas production tax collected on incremental barrels produced.
“To put that into perspective, over the past decade, oil and gas collections have been $23 billion in total,” Kroshus said.
He said $9 billion ‘is a big number, a big target and it’s lucrative.’
Ness said he hadn’t seen the studies before Tuesday.
“Those are studies that I had not seen before,” Ness said. “It’s good to see the math, the economics. I’m glad to see they built in the cost.”
He said work to jump start the Bakken and ‘supercharging’ the reservoir needs to start now.
“We have to make this work, it’s a win-win for everybody,” Ness said.
