Comfortable with $100+ oil prices, OPEC oil exporters refused to increase output, a move that quickly sent oil above $108 a barrel.

"At the moment there is enough oil in the market and no need to change OPEC's output," said OPEC general secretary Abdullah al-Badri, opting to blame the "US economic recession, lack of refining capacity and depreciation of the dollar's value" for higher oil prices.

While true, what if the U.S. could tell OPEC oil exports where they could stick their oil? What if we could significantly reduce our dependency on foreign oil, and sit back as the Middle East lost billions in oil revenue?

Well... if all goes according to plan, we may be able to do just that.

The Next Oil Boom Is Upon Us... in the Bakken Oil Field

U.S. consumers paid out $340 billion to import 14 million barrels a day... just for 2007. And it's only likely to get worse. We're already paying more $3.30 for a gallon of gas on gushing pre-summer driving season oil prices.

Sure, U.S. oil production has been spiraling downward for the last 40 years. But there's one area that's just starting to heat up, one that could boost our oil reserves 10 times over.

We're talking about the opportunity to meet all U.S. oil needs for the next two decades. That's huge.

Think about that. What if we could reduce our dependency on foreign oil? The Middle East would lose its marbles.

Locals call it "The Bakken." It's a behemoth oil reserve stretching across North Dakota, Montana and southeastern Saskatchewan... a reserve so massive it contains 10 times more barrels of oil than Alaska's North Slope. It's something my colleague Keith Kohl has been telling you about for months in his Bakken Oil Formation report.

While the U.S. Geological Survey has reported the Bakken field could hold more than 400 billion barrels of recoverable oil, a new report offering an accurate assessment of the Bakken Formation will be released over the next 30 days, finishing the work started by scientist Leigh Price.

Price had estimated that the Bakken field held as many as 900 billion barrels of oil, but died before the work could be published or reviewed. Some pegged it at close to 200 billion to 300 billion, with others calling for more than 400 billion.

Until recent years, the technology simply wasn't available to economically extract the oil from the Bakken shales, making product efforts overwhelming. But with breakthrough techniques such as horizontal drilling, the full potential of the Bakken play can now be developed. And it's well worth it given high oil prices and technological advancements.

Bakken's Black Gold... Right Here in America

Thar's black gold in them thar hills... This time in North Dakota. And as we mentioned above, the discovery could be significant. Unlike Northern Canada's oil sands, the Bakken's oil can be extracted relatively cheap, without the use of energy intensive processes.

That news alone means North Dakota could be headed for a boom oil year.

In January 2008 alone, the North Dakota Oil and Gas Division issued 90 permits to drill. At that pace, the number of permits could double those of last year, and "be near the record 1,098 issued in 1981," according to reports.

Truth told, with oil prices likely to remain well above $100, these are exciting times. The time for oil sticker shock is over.

You can stand by with your jaw on the floor over $100+ oil, or you can profit from a possible solution, like editors of "The $20 Trillion Report" are about to.

Take care,

Ian L. Cooper
http://www.wealthdaily.com

Editor's Update: The U.S. Geological Survey just released its long-anticipated study revising its estimates of the Bakken formation. The report confirms the Bakken is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS... and has 25 times more oil than its previous estimate. The Bakken story is just heating up, and investors are now faced with an unprecedented opportunity to capitalize. Learn more on how you can get in on the first round of profits.

P.S. After watching post-IPO MasterCard run from $43 to more than $200, we knew the Visa IPO was too good to pass up.

In a market virtually frozen by credit and bank woes, and tumultuous economic uncertainty, here was a company that would soon put an end to pent-up salivating investor demand for any company not suffering from credit issues.

But unless you had friends on the inside, there was no way to buy pre-IPO, which means that most investors missed the opening day run from $55 to $69.

Not to worry, though. With our "Backdoor Profit Play on Visa's Initial Public Offering", we watched as First Trust IPOX-100 Index (FPX) jetted from a $20.50 low to more than $23.22.

Investors that followed the recommendation are up more than 13% in only 22 trading days. And the run has just begun.

But gains like this are nothing new for SC Trading Pit. Despite extreme market volatility, and wild price swings, the team recommended buying and selling shares of "blood in the streets" favorite, MF Global, for 64% gains in 11 days, and 55% gains in a single day.

In six days, he recommended buying and selling American Express put options for 21% gains.

In only nine days of trading, he's up 11% on a favored Taiwan stock... And the Taiwanese stock run, the SC Trading Pit team tells me, is just beginning.