You know it.  I know it.  Practically everyone knows it.

The Bakken Shale formation in North Dakota and Montana has a lot more oil than originally thought.

North Dakota’s oil patch is coming off another stellar year.

In 2010, the State broke nearly every statistical record of oil exploration and production including the number of barrels produced (up 284% to 309,670), the number of wells producing (up 59% to 5,349), and the number of barrels produced per well (up 141% to 21,131).

August 6, 2010.

The date may not ring a bell to you.  But for those in the oil business it’s a day that changed history.

Some experts are calling it the most significant on-shore oil discovery in 40 years.

Others are saying it could be the sixth largest oil field ever discovered in US history.

In either event, when the play is mentioned among the likes of the biggest oil deposits ever discovered in America -- i.e. Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, Spraberry Trend in West Texas, the East Texas Oilfield, Kaparuk Field in Alaska, and the Bakken in North Dakota -- you know it has the potential to alter America’s energy landscape forever.