Results From The First Well In "The Area" To Target The 4th Bench Of The Three Forks: Farver 2-29H4

This well came off the confidential list today:

• 24657, 344, CLR, Farver 2-29H4, Hamlet, Lower Three Forks, 30 stages; 3 million lbs; 

From the well file:

The Farver 2-29H4 was spud on February 14, 2013, at as surface location 335' FNL and 1460’ FWL in Section 29, T160N, R96W, Divide County, North Dakota.

After drilling the surface hole and setting a 9 5/8” casing string with AES rig #4, Trinidad rig #36E was moved onto the Farver location to drill the remainder of the well; it drilled out of the 9 5/8” casing shoe on March 20, 2013.

The Farver is part of a series of wells drilled by Continental Resources in the Hamlet field area targeting the Mississippian/Devonian middle Bakken and the Devonian Three Forks in the Williston Basin of North Dakota.

The Farver is the first attempt in the area to establish oil production from the “4th bench” of the Three Forks (the lowermost member of the formation; identified by the North Dakota Geological Survey as “Member 1”).

The Hamlet field lies in Divide County in northwestern North Dakota and has been productive from several horizons including the Mississippian Madison, Mississippian /Devonian Bakken, Devonian Duperow, and Devonian Winnipegosis. Currently, at least 25 Bakken “pool” wells are productive within the Hamlet field.

I'm not exactly sure what is meant by "the area," but this is the first time I have posted IP results of a CLR well targeting the 4th bench of the Three Forks.

For newbies, this is the status of the USGS surveys, as I see it:

• the 2008 survey targeted only the middle Bakken 
• the 2013 survey included the UPPER Three Forks, and doubled the estimate of recoverable oil from the Bakken pool
• there has been no USGS survey targeting the LOWER Three Forks, i.e., the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th benches.

As I understand the progress to date, in North Dakota:

• the middle Bakken is delineated and operators are optimizing operations in the middle Bakken
• CLR is delineating the UPPER Three Forks; this subformation is productive where it exists
• CLR has a few pilot projects targeting the 2nd and 3rd benches of the LOWER Three Forks; the 2nd and 3rd benches are felt to be productive where they exist; 
• CLR is just beginning to target the 4th bench of the LOWER Three Forks; the jury is still out whether the 4th bench will be productive
• other companies may also be targeting/testing the LOWER Three Forks

By 2020, we will need a new USGS survey to include the LOWER Three Forks

Back to the well. A little bit more from the well file:

Total depth was reached at 9912' on March 26, 2013, with a projected angle at the bit of 89.0° and a projected TVD of 9723 (just above the 4th bench target interval). During the build section, the Three Forks was topped at 9400’ (9345' TVD), the “Internal 1” shale at 9443' (9371' TVD), the “Internal 2” shale at 9524' (9417' TVD), and the “Internal 3” shale at 9746' (9498' TVD).

LATERAL LEG: Drilling of the Farver #2-29H4 lateral leg began on March 28, 2013, at a measured depth of 9912’ (9524’ TVD), just above the targeted section of the 4th bench of the Three Forks formation (entered at 9940' MD, 9526.6' TVD). Peak gas reading (other than trip gas) of 177 units was recorded.