"X" Marks the Spot -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

This is just an excuse to embed LeAnn Rimes "Blue" into the blog.

There are so many stories that come out of the Bakken.

I was taking a look at the Blue Buttes oil field, which I have profiled before.  But tonight I noticed something I had not seen before.

In sections 20 --> 19 (1280-acre spacing) there are two long horizontal wells, #18726 and #17149. The both start in section 20 and they both end in section 19. They form two diagonals to the 1280-acre rectangle crossing near the center, forming a perfect X.

• 17149, 1,271, XTO, Thompson 44X-20, original operator -- Headington Oil
• 18726, 2,573, XTO, Marlene 42X-20, original operator -- XTO

The Thompson well was spud in June 3, 2008. The IP test date was October 23, 2008. Total oil produced to date: 174K. It continues to produce at 8,000 barrels/month. Only five (5) frac stages.

The Marlene well was spud just last year, May 19, 2010. The IP test date was July 12, 2010. Total oil produced to date: 119K. Here are the monthly production runs: 30K, 23K, 20K, 17K, 14K, and 13K.

Note, the Thompson well, fracked with five stages has produced 174K over 26 months. At $50/bbl --> $8.7 million at the wellhead. Paid for and it's producing at the rate of 8,000 bbls/month (half-million dollars/month).

The Marlene well, in the very same 1280-acre unit, fracked with 18 stages, has produced 119K in just six months. Oh, yeah.

The Thompson well, the older well, with just five frac stages, targeted the middle Bakken.
The Marlene, the newer well, with 18 frac stages, targeted the Three Forks.
It should be noted that not only are these very nice wells, they are not even in the best of the Bakken, at least based on some subjective data (i.e., my opinion).Blue, LeAnn Rimes