Basin Electric employee speaks at 2012 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference

Stage at the conference.

The 2012 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference drew 4,033 attendees from nine countries, 47 states and nine provinces May 22-24.

This is the 20th year of the conference, and the largest conference ever held in Bismarck, ND. The theme this year was “Bakken Gold: The best is yet to come.”

The majority of the oil recovered in the Bakken is found in western North Dakota. Today, 575,000 barrels are produced on average each day, and experts such as David Hobbs, IHS CERA chief energy strategist, believe the number could climb to 1 million barrels each day. Hobbs spoke to attendees May 23.

Lynn Helms, director of the ND Oil and Gas Division said the state can expect the population to climb to 1 million long-term residents, though a timeframe was not given for that projection. Currently, about 685,000 live in North Dakota. He said another oil formation in the area, the Tyler Formation, is now in the same stage of development that the Bakken was in 2003.

Jay Lundstrom, Basin Electric senior forecast analyst, spoke at the conference May 23 on electric power demand growth and supply. Watch some of his presentation in the video.