Smaller Oil Fields Draw Renewed Interest

Indianapolis-based oil refiner CountryMark is adding oil drilling to its business mix.  The company plans to drill for oil in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky.  While these haven’t been popular oil fields for a while, University of Wyoming energy resource expert Mark Northam says CountryMark’s move signals a trend.“There’s a lot of things that 10 years ago we didn’t even consider in our resource base because it would cost too much to produce it.  So smaller fields, more difficult to produce reservoirs are all looking very attractive, as the ready supply, especially domestically, dwindles and the value of the product increases," says Northam.Northam says new technology is enabling firms to produce oil in places they couldn’t before.  But he cautions that this wave of drilling in less-likely spots won’t do much to ease domestic oil prices.