The Bakken formation is a rock unit from the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian age. Named after Henry Bakken, a farmer in Tioga, North Dakota who owned the land where the formation was initially discovered, during drilling for oil.

 

Besides being a widespread prolific source rock for oil when thermally mature, significant producible oil reserves exist within the Bakken formation itself.

 

Oil was first discovered within the Bakken in 1951, but past efforts to produce it have faced technical difficulties.

 

In April 2008, a USGS report estimated the amount of recoverable oil using technology readily available at the end of 2007 within the Bakken Formation at 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels (680,000,000 m3), with a mean of 3.65 billion.