Although well logs and core data show that there is significant oil content in Bakken shales, the oil transport behavior in these source rocks is still not well understood. This lack of understanding impedes the drilling and production operations in the shale members. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the rock properties of the Bakken shales and how to extract oil from the shales using supercritical CO₂. High-pressure mercury injection tests showed that pore throat radii are less than 10 nm for most pores in both the upper and lower Bakken samples. Such small pore sizes yield high capillary pressure in the rock and make fluid flow difficult. Total organic carbon content was measured using 180 shale samples, and kerogen was characterized by Rock-Eval pyrolysis, which indicated considerable organic carbon present (10–15 wt%) in the shales. However, oil and gas are difficult to mobilize from organic matter using conventional methods. A systematic experimental procedure was carried out to reveal the potential for extracting hydrocarbons from the shale samples using supercritical CO₂ under typical Bakken reservoir conditions (e.g., 34.5 MPa and 110 °C). Results showed that supercritical CO₂ enables extraction of a considerable portion (15–65%) of hydrocarbons from the Bakken shales within 24 h. Measurement of CO₂ adsorption isotherm showed that Bakken shale has a considerable capability to trap CO₂ (up to 17 mg/g) under a wide range of pressures. The experimental results suggest the possibility of using supercritical CO₂ injection to increase the ultimate oil recovery and store a considerable quantity of CO₂ in the Bakken Formation.

尽管测井和岩心数据表明，巴肯页岩中含油量很高，但对这些烃源岩中的输油行为仍知之甚少。缺乏了解阻碍了页岩成员的钻探和生产作业。进行了一系列实验，以研究巴肯页岩的岩石特性，以及如何使用超临界CO ₂从页岩中提取石油。。高压汞注入测试表明，在上下Bakken样品中，大多数孔的孔喉半径均小于10 nm。如此小的孔径会在岩石中产生较高的毛细压力，并使流体难以流动。使用180个页岩样品测量了总有机碳含量，干酪根的特征在于岩石-Eval热解作用，这表明页岩中存在大量有机碳（10-15 wt％）。但是，使用常规方法很难从有机物中转移出石油和天然气。进行了系统的实验程序，以揭示在典型的Bakken储层条件（例如34.5 MPa和110°C）下使用超临界CO ₂从页岩样品中提取碳氢化合物的潜力。结果表明超临界CO ₂能够在24小时内从Bakken页岩中提取相当一部分（15–65％）的碳氢化合物。对CO ₂吸附等温线的测量表明，巴肯页岩在很宽的压力范围内具有相当大的捕获CO _2的能力（最高17 mg / g）。实验结果表明，有可能使用超临界CO ₂注入来提高最终采收率并在巴肯组中储存大量的CO ₂。