CLR has 22 rigs in North Dakota.
Minot Daily Press is reporting that the CLR/CEO has said he plans to double that number of rigs in North Dakota over the next five years.
2 x 22 = 44.
Okay.
44 x $7 million/well x one well/month = $308 million/month in drilling costs. That is a lot of investment in North Dakota; and, that's just one company, albeit the one with the most rigs. Someone correct me if my math is wrong. (The most recent CLR presentation, December, 2010, shows a Bakken well to cost $6.5 million to complete.) However, not all CLR wells are Bakken wells, and it may cost more or less to complete wells targeting other formations.
[Update: in the original post, I used $5 million as my figure for drilling a well. Someone commented (see below) that a better figure to use was $7 million, so I changed my note above, as it is now. It should be noted that GEOI just completed a well for $5.6 million. -- January 17, 2011.]
