'Blood & Oil': The oil bust is about to go mainstream

The oil bust is going mainstream.

This fall, ABC will air a show titled "Blood and Oil," which follows a young couple that moves to what ABC calls "The Bakken" in North Dakota in search of riches from the oil boom. 

The Bakken is a real-life shale formation in North Dakota seen by many as the epicenter of the shale-related oil boom seen in the US over the last several years. 

The show, which we first heard about via Reuters' energy expert John Kemp, comes at an interesting time for the industry, which boomed over the last several years amid the rise of fracking technology and a huge surge in oil prices but is now grappling with oil prices that are down about 60% from a year ago. 

In an email on Tuesday, Kemp wrote, "How do you know the oil industry is turning from boom to bust? The first episodes of "Dallas" were shown in 1978 as oil prices were climbing to their 1980 peak at $100 per barrel in real terms, but most of the series were aired in the 1980s, in time for the spectacular bust of the Texas oil industry."

According to a Deadline.com report from 2012, the show was picked up but never aired. In January, however, Deadline.com reported that ABC had picked up the show, a move that came after oil prices crashed about 40% in the final quarter of 2014. 

"Blood and Oil" will debut on Sunday, September 27.

Here's the collapse in oil prices over the last 4 years, which was apparently spectacular enough for a major network drama that will go up against the NFL during the fall. 

(via FT Alphaville)

Here's the trailer: