Well Density in the Williston Basin

Earlier I posted a note trying to put things into perspective regarding well density in the current boom.

A reader sent in this comment. Again, such a great comment, I moved it to a stand-alone post:

My nomination for the section (640 acres) with the greatest well density is section 23-163-83 in the Haas Field of western Bottineau County.

Since 1961 there has been a total of 25 wells drilled in section 23.

All have been drilled to the same zone, the Glenburn interval of the Madison formation.

In the 1960's thru 1980's a total of 19 vertical wells were drilled; all but one produced oil. Beginning in the mid 1990's and early 2000's, 6 horizontal wells were drilled within the section along with two
wells in adjoining sections which had major portions of their horizontals under section 23.

In addition to this, several of the horizontals had two legs on their laterals for a grand total of 14 legs producing oil from this one section and all from the Madison Glenburn zone.

To date this one secton has produced between 4 and 5 million barrels of oil. The southeast quarter (160 acres) has made about 3 million barrels of oil with 7 wells continuing to produce. Out of the 27 wells of this section, 18 are still producing.

One of the original wells in the southeast corner of this section produced about 750,000 barrels of oil before it was converted to an injection well.

The total production from the Haas Field is some over 10 million barrels of oil. The production depth is 4000 feet and the pay zone is about 60 feet thick in the middle of the field.