Legacy Update on Spearfish Wells in Bottineau County -- North Dakota, USA

Legacy Oil and Gas website here.

Report (pdf) here.

When you get to that document, you will need to scroll down to page four:

The first two horizontal wells of a five well program targeting light oil in the Spearfish in Bottineau County, North Dakota were drilled in the fourth quarter of 2010, with the remaining wells drilled subsequent to year end. Based on drill cuttings, gas detector response and oil shows while drilling, all five wells have now been cased as potential Spearfish oil wells and await completion. Fracture stimulation treatment is dependent on weather and road bans but is anticipated to occur within the next six weeks. The Company has continued to build on its dominant land position in the area which is now in excess of 43,840 net undeveloped acres. No reserves have been assigned to Legacy’s interest in Bottineau County in the December 31, 2010 reserves report.

It seems I heard that Spearfish oil was not as sweet as Bakken oil and would not be put in the Enbridge pipeline system. This report says that the wells targeted "light oil." I thought I read that oil from Spearfish wells would be trucked to Canada. I have to go back and look at that. My memory does not always serve me well.

A big thank you to a reader for alerting me to the Legacy Oil and Gas Spearfish update.

Update: yes, I was correct. Lynn Helms says Spearfish oil is "sour oil" and will be trucked to Canada. This is the article (regional links break early and often).

The Spearfish play is part of the Waskada South Field, an extension of Manitoba's Waskada Field, which is 12 miles north of the Manitoba-North Dakota border.

The Spearfish Formation is at a shallower depth than the Bakken Formation and is just above the Madison Formation.

Helms said the oil in the Spearfish is sour, "but that was known all along."
Sweet crude is lower in sulfur content than sour crude.

"Enbridge has switched their pipeline east of Minot to 100 percent sweet crude, so sour crude producers in Bottineau and Renville counties now have to truck their oil to Canada," Helms said.

This was my original post of same.

News regarding the Spearfish formation is aggregated here, or you can click on the Spearfish formation at the sidebar on the right.