Update on Some Whiting Data Points Regarding Drilling in the Bakken -- Drawing Wells on Paper (DWOP) -- North Dakota, USA

According to Oil Patch Hotline, here are some Whiting fracking data points (numbers rounded) (links to Oil Patch Hotline are dynamic and will change over time):

• A 30-stage fracture stimulation in the Bakken costs $750,000
• Whiting is looking at technology that can do 60 frack stages
• Typical fracking for long lateral: 40K bbls frack fluid and 3 million pounds of sand
• Horizontal wells are now being drilled in an average of 18 days (38 days in 2009; cost savings: $1 million)
• Bringing all players together for an all-day meeting prior to spudding (Drilling Wells on Paper [DWOP] program) allows WLL to drill four wells in less than 14 days
• Efficiencies have brought Sanish field wells down to a cost of $5.5 million

Why so many frack stages? CLR has data that suggests more frack stages a) result in well being paid off more quickly; and, b) correlate with higher EURs.

It's my impression that BEXP has found the sweet spot with 32 - 38 frack stages, but it will be interesting to see what 60 frack stages bring.

Note:

• Actual frack fluid ranges from 30 - 45K
• Actual sand ranges from 2.4 - 3.3 million pounds