In other words, drilling the Bakken was nothing more than a last-ditch effort for oil companies; it helped those companies recover a tiny bit of their investment.

However, new advances in horizontal drilling and one USGS report later and this bailout zone has become a hotbed of activity.

After watching the good news pour out of the North Dakota Bakken within the last few weeks, it's impossible not to take notice.

It's not just the record $71.6 million from the latest oil lease auction that has caught our attention. . .

When North Dakota made the move to become the fourth-largest oil producing state, other people still don't get it; and overtaking Louisiana for the fourth spot won't be nearly as impressive as when North Dakota moves past California.

Production is expected to grow to over 400,000 barrels per day in the next five years. Meanwhile, California continues to slide down the backside of peak oil.

Do you honestly believe California will be able to reverse their production decline?

I didn't think so, either.

Clearly the Bakken has become much more than a bailout zone and things are only going to get bigger going forward.

You see, I wasn't kidding when I said the second Bakken rush has begun. And judging by the amount of reader mail I get on a daily basis, it's safe to say that most of you have come to the same conclusion. More importantly, we've also realized just how profitable our Bakken investments have become.

I'll come back to this in just a minute. . .

Overlooking the Peak

The problem, however, is that peak oil is more than just a U.S. concern. Even more troubling is how easy people simply dismiss the bad news — even more so when the strings are being pulled by politics.

Were you surprised after a whistleblower came forward last week, accusing the IEA of being politically distorted?

When one-quarter of the world's oil production comes from just twenty fields, you'd think people would be a little interested in the fact that the largest of those fields are well past the peak.

Need an example of how bad things can get?

Look no further than the once-mighty Cantarell oil field. Cantarell reached a peak production of approximately 2.1 million barrels per day in 2003. By January, 2009, production fell more than 63%. Since January, production has dropped another 35%. Presently, Cantarell barely pumps out 500,000 barrels per day.

Within the next few years, production will be completely shut. Six years ago, the Cantarell field was the third largest oil field in the world.

At this pace, peak oil is costing Mexico about $14 billion a year.