One hundred ninety-six black shale samples of the Late Devonian-Early Mississippian Bakken Formation were selected from eight drill cores located in Montana and North Dakota, USA. Samples were powdered and total organic carbon and programmed temperature pyrolysis analysis were performed at the U.S. Geological Survey Petroleum Geochemistry Research Laboratory in Denver, CO following standard lab protocols. Total organic carbon contents are reported as wt. % whole rock. Programmed pyrolysis measurements are reported as: S1 (mg HC/g rock), S2 (mg HC/g rock), and S3 (mg CO2/g rock). These values were converted to wt. % C (relative to whole rock) as follows: mg HC/g rock * 0.082 = wt. % C, mg CO2/g rock * 0.025. The S4 carbon pool is calculated as: S4 = TOC – S1 – S2- S3. Tmax values are reported in °C.