08.13.25

Hoeven: Crack the Code 2.0, Bringing Coal & Oil Together to Double Both Recovery Rate in Bakken, Life of Coal-Fired Power Plants

Senator Hosts Energy Secretary Chris Wright at EERC

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven today hosted U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright at the University of North Dakota (UND) Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) for a discussion on efforts to crack the code in the Bakken again through enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Hoeven and Wright held a roundtable with North Dakota’s energy producers, as well as Representative Julie Fedorchak, Governor Kelly Armstrong and other state, local and university leaders, on policies secured in the One Big Beautiful Bill (OB3) that align incentives to encourage partnerships between coal and oil producers to:

  • Double the oil recovery rate in the Bakken.
  • Double the life of coal-fired electric power plants.

In order to advance these goals, Hoeven worked to ensure the OB3 properly aligned the 45Q tax credit to incentivize the use of CO2 for EOR, making it the clear, commercially-viable choice to improve oil recovery in the Bakken, while establishing an additional revenue stream for coal producers. Hoeven stressed that:

  • This is a proven method for increasing recovery rates, as CO2 is already used for EOR in conventional oil fields. For instance, the Dakota Gasification Company supplies CO2 to the Weyburn Field in Canada.
    • Bakken oil recovery rates are currently between 5 and 15 percent, meaning there are billions in untapped reserves waiting to be unlocked.
    • Last year, total production from the Bakken formation surpassed 5 billion barrels, and EOR has the potential to recover at least an additional 5 billion barrels of oil out of the Bakken.

“In North Dakota, we originally cracked the code in the Bakken by advancing a legal, tax and regulatory environment that enabled the deployment of the latest greatest technologies to access previously unavailable oil reserves. This empowered innovative companies to come into the state and develop oil and gas from shale formations on a commercially-viable basis. For example, through his former company, Liberty Energy, Secretary Wright played a key role in making North Dakota an energy powerhouse by bringing new hydraulic fracturing technologies to market,” said Hoeven. “Now we have him in the state once again in his new role as Secretary of Energy as we crack the code on the Bakken for the second time, bringing together our oil and coal industries to not only double our recovery rate in the Bakken, but also double the life of our coal plants. That means more affordable energy and a more reliable grid, which is a recipe for true U.S. energy dominance.”

In addition, the OB3 takes other important steps to advance U.S. energy dominance in North Dakota and across the nation. These include:

  • Unlocking access to taxpayer-owned oil, gas and coal reserves. To this end, the legislation requires the Interior Department to:
    • Hold quarterly lease sales for oil and gas.
    • Take prompt action on new coal lease applications.
    • Open for leasing an additional 4 million acres of known recoverable federal coal reserves.
  • Rolling back Green New Deal policies imposed under the Biden administration, including:
    • Stopping the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) fee on oil and gas production, also known as the Natural Gas Tax, for 10 years. Hoeven led the effort in the Senate to block implementation of President Biden’s Natural Gas Tax.
    • Reducing federal royalty rates for oil, gas and coal production to their pre-IRA levels.

 

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