North Dakota is funding a real push into CO2 enhanced oil recovery in the Bakken, and independent researchers at the University of North Dakota's Energy & Environmental Research Center estimate the technique could add somewhere between 5 and 8 billion additional barrels of oil over the next 30 to 50 years. For Western North Dakota real estate, that reframes the region's economic anchor from "a boom that eventually winds down" into a multi-decade story, which matters whether you own a rental, a commercial building, raw land, or the house you live in.
What is enhanced oil recovery, and why does the Bakken need it?
Most Bakken wells today produce using primary and early secondary recovery methods, which leave a large share of the oil in the rock behind because shale simply does not release it easily. Enhanced oil recovery, or EOR, injects carbon dioxide into the formation to loosen and push out oil that conventional drilling can't reach on its own. The EERC's Bakken CO2 EOR pilot program is testing exactly this: injecting CO2 into the Bakken Formation both to increase recovery and to store carbon underground in the process.
I've sold real estate here through the boom and the slowdown, so I pay attention to anything that changes the shape of the next twenty years, not just the next twenty months. EOR is that kind of story. It's slower and less flashy than a rig count headline, but it's the kind of investment that tells you where the smart money thinks this basin is headed.
How much is North Dakota actually investing in this?
The U.S. Department of Energy announced a $36 million investment in an enhanced oil recovery program at the University of North Dakota, built around leveraging captured carbon dioxide to unlock billions of additional barrels from the Bakken shale formation. That sits alongside the North Dakota Industrial Commission's own EOR grant program, which funds oil and gas research aimed squarely at the same problem: getting more out of wells that are already drilled.
Public and federal dollars rarely chase a resource play that's assumed to be running out. When the state and the federal government both put research money behind extending a formation's life, that's a signal worth factoring into any long-hold decision on property here, not just a talking point for oil executives.
How many more years of oil does this actually buy the Bakken?
According to an EERC-backed study reported by the North Dakota Monitor, injecting CO2 at scale could add 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of oil from the Bakken Formation over the next 30 to 50 years, with a potential $9 billion tax impact for the state over just the first 10 years of that window. That is not a short-term price bounce. That is a timeline that stretches past most 30-year mortgages written today.
Running the number one eXp team in North Dakota mostly taught me what clients remember five years later: not the rate they locked, but whether the fundamentals underneath their decision held up. A 30-to-50-year runway on the region's core industry is the kind of fundamental that holds up.
What does a longer Bakken boom mean for property values in Williston and Watford City?
If the Bakken's productive life is measured in decades rather than years, that changes the calculus differently depending on what you own. A residential buyer weighing whether Williston is a "flash in the pan" town gets a real answer: the job base behind housing demand has a longer horizon than headlines about rig counts suggest. An investor eyeing a rental or a small commercial building gets a longer window to underwrite against. Someone holding land or acreage, especially anything tied to mineral rights, is sitting on an asset whose value is directly downstream of exactly this kind of recovery technology working.
A longer resource timeline supports a longer investment timeline. It doesn't guarantee prices go up every year, but it does weaken the case for treating Williston, Watford City, or the surrounding acreage as a short-term play you need to exit before the wells run dry.
Does this guarantee property values stay strong here?
No, and I'd be doing you a disservice if I said otherwise. Enhanced oil recovery is a technology rollout measured in years, not a light switch, and oil prices will keep cycling up and down the way they always have regardless of how many barrels are technically recoverable underground. What EOR changes is the ceiling on how long this region's core industry can keep operating, not the day-to-day volatility that still shows up in rig counts and oilfield employment. Anyone buying here should still underwrite the property on its own merits, not purely on an oil-and-gas thesis.
Common questions about Bakken enhanced oil recovery and real estate
What is CO2 enhanced oil recovery, in plain terms?
It's a process where carbon dioxide is injected into an oil-bearing rock formation to help push out oil that primary drilling leaves behind. In the Bakken, the EERC is piloting this specifically to increase how much of the formation's oil can actually be produced.
How much money has North Dakota put into this?
The U.S. Department of Energy committed $36 million to an enhanced oil recovery program at the University of North Dakota's EERC, and the state's own Industrial Commission runs a separate EOR grant program for oil and gas research.
How many more barrels could this add to the Bakken?
An EERC-backed study estimated 5 billion to 8 billion additional barrels of oil recoverable over the next 30 to 50 years, according to reporting from the North Dakota Monitor.
Does this mean home prices in Williston will keep rising?
Not automatically. It supports the case that the region's economic base has a longer runway than a typical resource-boom narrative suggests, but prices still respond to interest rates, inventory, and short-term oil price swings the same as anywhere else.
Is this relevant if I'm not investing in oil and gas directly?
Yes. The Bakken's oil output drives the jobs, population, and spending that support housing demand, rental demand, and commercial activity across Williams and McKenzie counties, so a longer production timeline is relevant even to a buyer who has never owned a mineral interest.
Should landowners with mineral rights care about this?
Very much so. Mineral rights are only as valuable as the oil that's technically and economically recoverable underneath them, and enhanced recovery techniques directly expand that number.
I've watched this market move through a boom, a slowdown, and now a quieter, steadier stretch, and the CO2 enhanced oil recovery push is the closest thing I've seen to the state betting on this region's next thirty years rather than its next thirty months. That doesn't remove the risk from any single purchase, but it's the kind of long-horizon signal I want my clients thinking about alongside the more immediate stuff like rates and inventory.
EP
Proven Realty, brokered by eXp Realty
Wondering what a longer Bakken timeline means for your specific property or plans?
Let's talk through what you own or what you're considering, and I'll give you my honest read.
Talk to Erik at ProvenRealtyND.com
