Friday, June 15, 2012

How Good Is The Bakken? -- The Apache Perspective

Don alerted me to this information on the recent Apache presentation. Click here for the PDF.

How good is the Bakken?

In its most recent presentation, Apache presents data of its plays. The data is below. I did not include Kenya Deepwater (like New Zealand and Cook Inlet, no data available, at least that I could).

I assume that as Whiting's Three Forks data from the southwest area of North Dakota comes in, the EUR will improve, as will the ROR. The Three Forks wells from the Sanish, farther north in North Dakota, have not been as impressive as the middle Bakken.

The Liard Basin is a natural as play. Look at the cost of those wells (cost in million of dollars).

I believe the data below is correct, but it is not a cut and paste from the Apache presentation, so there could be errors.


PlayCost ($mm)EURROR
Liard Basin35.466 bcfn/a
Vaca Muerta Oil11.4329 mboe17%
Mississippi Lime3.5320 mboe65%
WB Middle Bakken7.6670 mboe106%
WB Three Forks7.6377 mboe37%
New Zealandn/an/an/a
Cook Inletn/an/an/a

6 comments:

  1. One interesting comment by Apache related to their Montana Williston Basin was that their competition for shale acres to the west of their position was/is Exxon.

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    1. I did not catch that. That is very, very interesting. Thank you for taking time to comment.

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  2. Hi Bruce I don't know exactly where to post this Q so I will just ask it here is there a place or do u know how to find the % of Bakken wells to other wells producing in nd right now

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    1. NDIC has that data at its website, but only updated annually, as far as I can tell:

      https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/stats/statisticsvw.asp

      But if you combine this data monthly Director's Cut, you can get a pretty good idea of real-time data.

      At the end of 2011, NDIC reported that 6,662 wells in North Dakota had produced some oil during the year. Obviously, during the year, some of those wells were abandoned. During that year, 3,345 were described at "Bakken Pool" wells, but there are other wells "associated" with the Bakken. I will post a stand-alone post.

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  3. It seem like Apache has leased up at least a third of Daniels County, and much of it in the western half. That seems like a big gamble, unless they picked up the acreage on the cheap. The big question mark is: will Bakken exploration be productive/economical in Daniels County? I think there are some 'ok' Bakken wells in Sheridan County, but that Sheridan County is quite a bit closer to ND and directly north of Roosevelt County.

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    1. My first impression was "ok." I was not very excited then, and I am not very excited now. The proof will be in the pudding. Montana is known for some great natural gas fields, and I suppose that's a possibility.

      There may be other formations that are productive, but for the Bakken to extend this far (and be productive) would surprise a lot of folks. I hope I am wrong. This would be huge if the Bakken/Three Forks extended that far.

      Having said all that, there is nothing to say there might not be a pinching out -- there are rumors that "streams/rivers" run southeast from the Bakken toward Jamestown, North Dakota. But I've seen nothing to even suggest there is any likelihood of that being likely.

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