KILLDEER - Cathy Trampe, of Dunn Center, said she made a deal with her husband, Ernest: If they got an oil well out in one of their grazing pastures, they'd sell the cows.

The well came and the cows got sold, though they're still waiting for their first royalty check in the mail.

The Trampes and more than 130 others from the Dunn County area were in Killdeer on Tuesday night for a town hall meeting that was all about oil, though first and afterward it was about visiting over chips, beer and beef sandwiches in the commodious Buckskin banquet room.

There's a lot to talk about in Dunn County these days, with 13 oil rigs lighting up the night like prairie skyscrapers out there.

A lineup of speakers made it clear the well on the Trampes' land is just the tip of what could be the most sustained and lucrative oil "iceberg" in state history.

That deep iceberg of oil in the Bakken formation is situated like a horseshoe, dropped irregularly on the northwest quadrant of the state and covering more than 24,000 square miles. The Bakken's oil reserve could contain as much as 200 billion to 400 billion barrels of oil, which makes the 1.6 billion barrels produced in all of state history so far seem like a proverbial drop in the bucket.

The size of the reserve is under study by both the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources and the U.S. Geological Survey, with the new numbers expected out in the next two months. But records for state oil production and number of new wells permitted are teetering now.

Lynn Helms, director of the mineral division, told the packed house that daily oil production will likely surpass the state's record set in 1985 by mid-year.

North Dakota, long ranked ninth among states in total oil production, is now ranked eighth ahead of Montana and could move into fifth or sixth place, he said. This year could breech the record for new well permits. That record is 1,098 permits issued in 1981.

The Bakken may take another 40 to 50 years to fully develop making it an extremely sustained oil event. Helms said the micro-porosity of the rock may make it a good candidate for enhanced recovery using carbon dioxide, rather than a water flood, when that stage comes.

Dunn County is in the heart of the best of the Bakken production so far, along with wells in Mountrail County.

Helms said the oil industry expected good production from the Bakken to spill over from Montana closer to the state line, but the surprise has been to find it further afield. That could put Mercer County in a good position for oil development as evidenced by strong interest in Mercer County when the State Land Department auctioned 21,000 mineral acres in the county two weeks ago.

"It's the march to the lake (Sakakawea)," Helms said of the oil rigs' path. "The industry believes there's Bakken potential all the way to mid-Mercer County."

Helms said oil production in Dunn and Mountrail counties is "shooting straight up." A fairly steady increase of daily oil production at around 2,000 barrels jumped up to 7,000 barrels when wells in those counties came in recent months, he said.

He said Bakken formation produces a sweet crude oil that's being "gobbled up" by Tesoro's Mandan refinery. "It's the best oil in the world," Helms said.

Mark Makelky, director of the state's Pipeline Authority, said crude oil pipelines - particularly the east-west Enbridge pipeline - are expanding capacity.

"It's not enough yet," Makelky said. Enbridge will go from 110,000 barrels capacity to 160,000 in its next expansion phase. That phase will max out the pipeline, and the next step is to build another line, he said.

All the natural gas coming off the oil wells and flaring now in Dunn and Mountrail will be eventually gathered, though there are some constraints on the smaller pipelines that feed into the main 42-inch Northern Border Pipeline that exports much of the state's gas production, Makelky said.

Ron Ness, who directs the North Dakota Petroleum Council, said the boom is back, especially in view of oil tax revenue. The state's share of oil taxes could amount to more than $600 million this biennium alone, he said.

A proposed constitutional measure will divert some of that revenue into a trust that could eventually yield $75 million a year in interest, Ness said.

Like pipelines constrain product, North Dakota's available workforce could constrain the boom. Ness said the industry needs 12,000 new and replacement workers over the next four years "to get the job done."

The North Dakota Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties coordinated the Dunn County meeting and others still to be held.

They're scheduled at noon Feb. 22 in Bowman at the Sweetwater Golf Course Clubhouse; at noon Feb. 25 at the Farm Festival building in Tioga; at 6 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Two Way Steakhouse in Stanley; and at noon Feb. 26 at the 4 Bears Casino at New Town.

Vicky Steiner, director of the county association, said each meeting will be tailored with information for each oil location.