A New Madison Oil Field In North Dakota? Cool, Clear Water -- September 29, 2014

Updates

October 5, 2017: wells in Chatfield oil field have been updated.

October 21, 2015: update on two Chatfield wells. At the moment, Chatfield is a two-section oil field.

Permits

2015
31307, conf, Ballard, Barton Trust 31-30, Chatfield,
31222, conf, Ballard, Fines 14-19, Chatfield,
31118, conf, Ballard, Fines 23-19, Chatfield,
31117, conf, Ballard, Nelson 33-19, Chatfield,
29807, 352, Ballard, Nelson 34-19, Chatfield, t3/15; cum 39K 8/15;
29622, conf, Benergy, Borstad 30-3, Chatfield,
2014
27319, 600, Ballard, Fines 24-19, Chatfield, t6/14; cum 66K 8/15;
 

Original Post

This is really, really cool. Subtle, but cool.

A Madison update. A writer reminded me about the Madison with a recently reported well:

• 27319, 600, Ballard Petroleum, Fines 24-19, t6/14; cum 9K 7/14; 

This well was a wildcat; it's now said to be in Chatfield oil field. It is a vertical well, drilled successfully, total depth of 4,700 feet, to the MC-2 Anhydrite. The main objective of the well was to test the Wayne Pay interval. It is located approximately four miles north of Glenburn, about 20 miles NNE of Minot. At the time it was drilled, it was in the "wildcat field of Bottineau County." The well was spud on February 27, 2014, and reached TD on March 14, requiring 15 operational days to drill, core, and test.

The "stratigraphic correlation chart" is located here. See also the North Dakota Geological Survey site. At that link scroll down/search "Wayne."

The Madison Group has been divided into a number of informal, wireline log-defined intervals (Harris and others, 1966; Voldseth, 1986). In ascending order, they are the Bottineau, Tilston, Landa, Wayne, Glenburn, Mohall, Sherwood, Bluell, Coteau, Dale, Nesson, Midale, Ratcliffe, and Poplar intervals. Hendricks (Hendricks-1988)subdivided the Ratcliffe interval into several subintervals, the Berentson, Alexander, Flat Lake, Charles C, Lustre, and Eggebrecht.

I did not find the Chatfield oil field on GIS map server. The scout ticket says the well is in the Chatfield oil field:

NDIC File No: 27319     API No: 33-009-02354-00-00     CTB No: 127319
Well Type: OG     Well Status: A     Status Date: 6/2/2014     Wellbore type: Vertical
Location: SESW 19-159-81     Footages: 660 FSL 1980 FWL     Latitude: 48.576280     Longitude: -101.181315
Current Operator: BALLARD PETROLEUM HOLDINGS, LLC
Current Well Name: FINES 24-19
Total Depth: 4700     Field: CHATFIELD
Spud Date(s):  2/27/2014
Pool: MADISON     

If this is a new oil field, it is the first new oil field since the Cottonwood oil field, to the best of my knowledge.

An IP of 600 compares favorably with any Bakken well, though the EUR will be much, much less.  That statement needs to be retracted; see comments below. But this would have been a relatively inexpensive vertical well.

Later: this is really quite exciting. Ballard has two more wells in the same general area, both on confidential. The Fines well is in section 19-159-81. The other two Ballard wells on confidential are 6 to 10 miles north in township 160-81.

• 27703, conf, Ballard, Middaught 33-23, wildcat, 23-160-81;
• 27704, conf, Ballard, Drovdal 13-2, wildcat, 2-160-81; 

If these are also good wells, we might start to see the minimum extent (north-south) of this new field.

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Later, see first comment below. As of this date, from the NDIC website, some selected formations, cumulative production, number of wells, and average production/well to date:

Bakken: 831,017,850 bbls / 7,353 wells =  113,017 bbls/well
Bakken/Three Forks: 3,590,399 bbls / 34 = 105,600 bbls/well
Madison: 939,049,431 bbls/ / 5567 = 168,681 bbls/well
Red River: 110,277,553 bbls / 736 = 149,834 bbls/well
Red River B: 149,294,668 bbls / 550 = 271,445 bbls/well

The current Bakken boom in North Dakota began in 2007. The heyday of the Madison wells was back in the 60's and 70's I believe. The Red River came a bit later but even now is producing some incredibly good wells.  (I could be very wrong on the relative timing of Madison wells vs Red River wells.)

The vast majority of Bakken wells are less than five years old. 

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A Note to the Granddaughters

I am really, really enjoying Judith Nies' 2014 Unreal City: Las Vegas, Black Mesa, and the Fate of the West. The book provides a superficial, but informative, history of Hopi/Navajo conflicts, the Mormons, coal, water, and the growth of Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas in the 1950's. I first mentioned the book a few days ago. It is a short book, and so easy to read, one could read it in one setting, but it is so enjoyable to read, I wish it would not end, and that's why I'm reading it slowly. It reads like a very, very long New Yorker article.

I probably wouldn't have posted this, but I needed a music video to re-charge my blogging batteries.

This is not my favorite version, but it is said to be "vintage," and I'm a sucker for "vintage":

Cool, Clear Water, Sons of the Pioneers
I probably shouldn't post this. Spoiler Alert: this will ruin your memories of this song:

Cool, Clear Water, Gaither
For the archives:

• a growing list of northern California communities that may run out of water in less than 60 days (are their golf courses still open?)
• daily allocation of water per house?
• harvest much smaller than normal

Sounds like the 1976 - 1977 drought; I was living in California; the motto was "Shower With A Friend," and, yes, ....