Irving, Tex.-based Breitling Oil and Gas Corp. said Dec. 27 that it has acquired a large acreage position in the Sand Creek field, a proven and prolific part of the Bakken shale formation in McKenzie County, North Dakota. 

Breitling plans to drill six initial wells in the Bakken and Three Forks formations during the next 24 to 36 months, which it says will represent the start of a continuous, multi-rig development program for the company.

“Our significant acreage position in a prolific area in McKenzie County gives us a considerable competitive advantage in the Bakken and Three Forks,” said Chris Faulkner, Breitling’s CEO. “We believe the Bakken and Three Forks represent a game-changing resource play for the United States and will be a major focus of Breitling’s future exploration and production activities.”

The Bakken formation encompasses some 25,000 square miles in North Dakota and  Montana and in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The Three Forks is made up of sand and porous rock directly below North Dakota’s portion of the Bakken formation, where oil-producing rock is sandwiched between layers of shale about two miles underground.

A US Geological Survey report found that North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 5 to 10 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in the Bakken Formation and Three Forks combined.