The well that taps the Bakken does something the derrick men of the last century would have called impossible. It drills straight down some two miles, then bends through a gradual arc until the bit is running horizontally, and continues sideways for two miles more through a target rock only tens of feet thick. The whole path is steered from the surface by engineers reading instruments at the bit.

Drilling Around the Corner

Once the hole is drilled and cased, the fracturing crews take over, pumping water, sand and pressure down the well in a series of stages that crack the tight rock and prop the fractures open so the oil can flow. A single well pad may host a dozen such wells, fanning out beneath the section like the fingers of a hand.

From the almanac's reckoning:

• A Bakken lateral can run two miles horizontally through thin oil-bearing rock.
• Engineers steer the drill bit in real time from the surface.
• Multi-well pads fan several laterals out beneath a single section.

It is among the most sophisticated industrial operations ever brought to a plains section, and it runs day and night for weeks to bring in a single well. The almanac marvels that so much of it happens two miles below the pasture, out of sight of the cattle grazing above.