I watched a presentation yesterday of a possible game changer in the oil patch

http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/25681081.shtml

The way fields are conventionally developed on the slopes cost $55/bbl to break even requiring 100's of millions to billions in capital investments before producing a drop of oil. By going with portable facility that is leased and trucking crude instead of installing pipelines at $5mil/mile the projection is this approach will allow oil to be profitable at $37/bbl and drastically reduce the risk of conventional developments. There are many small lease holders all over the slope with wells that can be profitably produced with this model. What struck me was the statement that of the dozen of test wells that were drilled over the past 50 years but not produced, the worst of them flows 10 times better than the best Backen wells.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out, bet seems like a game changer that could be exactly what the state needs for increased oil revenue and jobs.