Thursday, October 3, 2013

The Significance Of The Four Proposed MRO Wells Targeting The Tyler In The Williston Basin

Last week I posted a bit of news regarding the Tyler formation. MRO's horizontal wells targeting the Tyler might represent the first time someone has tested the feasibility of treating the Tyler as an unconventional oil play in North Dakota.

Back in January, 2012, GeoNews provided a history of drilling in the Tyler formation in North Dakota. Links can be found at the sidebar at the right, under "Tyler/Heath."

To view the stratigraphy of North Dakota, click here. The Tyler is significantly more shallow than the Bakken/Three Forks and has a slightly more southerly/southwesternly "layout" compared to the Bakken.

Some data points from the GeoNews article:

The first horizontal Tyler well: Axem Resources' Tracy Mountain 12-36H drilled in the sourthern portion of the Fryburg field, July, 1992; two lateral legs (900 and 1,800 feet). Minimal production; converted to water injector.

The first economically successful well: Upton Resources' Federal 2-13; Tracy Mountain field, September, 2001; 3,000 ft lateral; cumulative > 220,000 bbls.

Since then, varying degrees of success.

"It is unknown to the author [of the GeoNews linked article] whether is was the failure of this last well [Upton Resources' Tracy Mountain Federal 1-18H] or the onset of the Bakken-Three Forks play that ended (at least temporarily] Upton Resources' horizontal drilling of the Tyler formation.

"In addition, the Tyler Formation has not been explored as an unconventional resource play. Our ongoing study of Tyler source rocks may reveal that the Tyler oil pool extends significantly beyond the Dickinson-Fryburg trend. Low porosity siltstone and limestone intervals in close vertical proximity to mature Tyler source rocks could be future horizontal well targets using multistage hydraulic fracturing recently developed for Bakken and Three Forks completions in the Williston Basin."

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A Note to the Granddaughters

The fun children have:

The Coliseum

Yesterday we unpacked a piece of furniture that needed to be assembled. The younger granddaughter happened to notice a piece of styrofoam in the box. She pulled it out and then, very insightfully, asked if there was a matching piece. And, of course, there was.

She immediately saw the possibilities.

She used the two halves of the styrofoam for a coliseum setting. Her hedgehogs were the audience. They sat above the arena in which a little lion/cat/kitten comes out from underneath the stadium seating to attack "something."

Never in a million years would I have imaged using styrofoam for a small coliseum. The imagination kids have is incredible.

2 comments:

  1. Not much in the Marathon credit suisse pdf. The usual forecast of growth all fairly nice. On page 18 a very subtle forecast of future potential. Is it Tyler or is it Lodgepole? TIme will tell. I have pasted the bullet below. Not quite ready for prime time but a bullet point all the same.


     370,000 net acres
     Future growth opportunities to capture
    ~740 MMBOE total net resource
     Additional infill density in Middle
    Bakken and Three Forks 1st bench
     Deeper Three Forks benches
     Continued improvement in
    completion design
     Addition of other horizons

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    Replies
    1. It's slow for me, also, with regard to the Bakken. Not much news. Same old, same old.

      The price of oil (WTI/NYMEX) at $100 is very interesting, and mainstream media not saying much, and this is not nearly the beginning of the heavy driving season in the US. This is the middle of winter (as Atlanta, Georgia, is finding out). For investors this is an opportunity to spend some time looking at 4Q13 and full year earnings reports with things otherwise quiet.

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