Quote:

Max said
I don't know the exact oil price which makes Bakken non-profitable, but I would not be surprised if it is already the case.

The Federal Reserve thinks that the cost of production for Bakken is around $60/barrel, or at least it was a year or 2 ago when they looked. Read through the analysis in the item below. That doesn't include, of course, cost of transportation to where it can be used, so FOB Houston or E. Coast or Anacortes it's probably closer to $70/barrel. Can't know any of that for sure, because those costs are very much trade secrets and even the highbrow economists at the Fed are guessing to some degree.

In any case, at $80-81/barrel (current price and near-term futures) it's almost certainly still profitable, but the producers are probably watching things closely, and at those prices it's no longer a (black) gold mine. If the Saudis get serious about crushing the market, it shouldn't be difficult to put a hurt on Bakken. Of course, the North Sea fields and other higher-cost producers would get hurt too. Oil producers are quick to shut things down if prices go the wrong way (for them), and slow to restart when they go back up.