Federal EOR Grant Awarded, DAPL Protest Judgment Tossed in Settlement

The U.S. Department of Energy has officially awarded a $36 million grant to a major enhanced oil recovery (EOR) initiative for the Bakken formation, according to an announcement by Sen. John Hoeven. The funding is part of the $157 million "Crack the Code 2.0" project, which includes state and industry contributions and aims to develop cost-effective technologies to extend the life of Bakken oil fields.

The effort will be led by the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota and will involve multiple large-scale pilot projects run by four different oil companies. "The key component of all of this is the EERC," said North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness. "We’ve got to bring the best of all those ideas together. That’s what the EERC does." The federal funding, available immediately, along with the renewal of a $25 million cooperative agreement, comes after the EERC recently cut 27 positions and furloughed 13 employees due to funding delays.

The project targets the economic challenges of applying EOR in shale formations like the Bakken. "We’ve had smaller demonstration projects that have shown we can increase oil recovery, but not at economic levels," said Lynn Helms, former state oil regulator and now leading EOR efforts for the Petroleum Council. The new, larger-scale pilots scheduled to begin over the next 12 months aim to prove the commercial viability of the techniques.

Separately, a federal judge has agreed to nullify a nearly $28 million judgment against the U.S. government so the state can settle a long-running lawsuit over costs from the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests. The lawsuit, filed in 2019, claimed the federal government unlawfully allowed demonstrators to camp on federal land in 2016-2017, forcing North Dakota to pay millions for policing and cleanup.

During a hearing on Friday, attorneys for both sides said the settlement would avoid further appeals and provide North Dakota with a "substantial monetary payment," though the amount was not disclosed. As a condition, the U.S. Department of Justice requires the vacating of the April 2025 judgment and related orders. "The downstream consequences of keeping these on the books is troublesome for the United States," said DOJ attorney Jonathan Guynn.

State attorneys argued the settlement saves public time and money. The resolution closes a nearly seven-year legal chapter stemming from the high-profile protests that occurred during the pipeline's construction, which transports Bakken crude oil to market.