First Well With 2560-Acre Spacing -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Well, this is very, very interesting.

Folks have been opining, wondering, speculating, arguing, elsewhere, how anyone is going to be able to drill a well on 2560-acre spacing.

Well (no pun intended), I think we got ourselves our first example. (Note: I'm sure someone will tell me it's been done a hundred times before and that this is no big deal. But it's the first time I've seen it, and the first time I've blogged about it, so for me -- and, perhaps, me alone -- it's a big, big deal.) But I don't quite understand what I'm seeing. First, here's the well:

• 19666, 1,028, MRO, Elk Creek USA 33-12H, Lost Bridge, Bakken (note spacing: 4 sections). The well is located in Lost Bridge oil field, west of the reservations, about 20 miles NNW of Killdeer, as the crow flies.

But this is what still needs to follow. There are two wells on this pad (the other is 19667, and that long horizontal goes south. The 19666 long horizontal goes north).

Each horizontal, as noted, is a long horizontal: 19666 goes north into sections 12/1 - 148-96, while 19667 goes south into sections 13/24 - 148-96.

The GIS map server confirms that this is 2560-acre spacing. This suggests to me that whoever owns any mineral rights in any of these four sections will collect royalties from both horizontals.

But I think this answers the question: just because it's "2560-acre spacing," doesn't mean the operator has to push the horizontal four miles or more.

See third comment below for explanation why "2560-acre spacing" is chosen: it has to do with the "500-foot setback rule."

One can go to the GIS map server and locate other 2560-acre spacing units. I checked out #19712, CLR, Ivan 1-29H: it's a long horizontal, but the scout ticket says it's only 2-section spacing. This is the same for its sister well, #19586, He 1-20H (one 2560-acre spacing, but yet being reported as "2-section spacing."  I wonder if there is an error, an inconsistency, a change in spacing rules, or most likely, I'm misreading/misunderstanding something. It wouldn't be the first time.

(Same with #17770/#17742: two long horizontals drilling on 2560-acre spacing, and the scout ticket for both shows 2-section spacing.)

Other wells coming off confidential list today: 

• 19471, 1,412, Fidelity, Behr 16-21H, Stanley, Bakken,
• 20323, DRL, BR, Midnight Run 11-1MBH, Union Center, Bakken,

Note: one of three wells reporting today was not fracked/completed.

For once, it looks like Fidelity has a good well. Which reminds me: the MRO well above is another in a string of good wells being reported by MRO. I remember about a year ago, an "expert"told me that MRO doesn't report wells with IPs greater than 500 bbls, and seldom about 300 bbls. MRO must have gotten the memo.