Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Comparing Legacy And Corinthian Wells Targeting The Spearfish In North Dakota: A Random Update -- October 22, 2014

A reader noted this less-than-spectacular well in the Spearfish, coming off the confidential list today. There are two names that make up most of the Spearfish activity in North Dakota right now: Legacy and Corinthian. My understanding is that Legacy bought Corinthian acreage earlier this year, but permits are still being issued for both Legacy and for Corinthian.

A reader noted this less-than-spectacular well that was reported today:
  • 28112, 11, Legacy, Legacy Berge 13-31H, North Souris, a Spearfish well, t6/14; cum --
I was curious: are the IPs of the wells significantly different between Legacy and Corinthian, and are their significant differences in IPs in the various Spearfish fields? The IPs are listed below for wells whose permits were issued in the given year. I did not include wells with permits from 2104; too many of them would not yet be completed.

About all I can tell, is that the "Corinthian" wells have marginally better IPs than the "Legacy" wells; and the North Souris oil field is probably a bit better than Red Rock.

I only looked at a couple of well files; it looks like these wells are being completed with 24 - 26 stages, and 200,000 lbs of proppant, compared to 2 million lbs and more of proppant in Bakken wells.

Maybe other readers have a different perspective. 

In a long note like this, there will be typographical errors. If this information is important to you, go to the source.
2013

"Corinthian" wells
26035, 75, North Souris,
26150, drl, North Souris,
26036, 45, North Souris,
26573, 116, North Souris,
27052, 155, North Souris,
27051, 259, North Souris,
26942, conf, North Souris,
26941, 99, North Souris,
26762, 99, North Souris,
26724, 74, North Souris,
26714, 74, North Souris,
26713, 74, North Souris,
25813, 205, North Souris,
25697, 130, North Souris,
25696, 167, North Souris,
25685, 92, North Souris,
25643, 114, North Souris,
25561, 136, North Souris,
25560, 90, North Souris,
24940, 27, North Souris,
24883, 314, North Souris,   (North Souris average: 123)
26474, 52, Souris,
26492, 26,  Northeast Landa
26181, 11, Northeast Landa,
26349, 167, Northeast Landa,
26343, 34, Northeast Landa,
26336, 10, Red Rock,
26162, conf, Wildcat,

"Legacy"
27210, 89, North Souris,
26004, 99, North Souris,
26003, 99, North Souris,
25993, 27, North Souris,
25523, 77, North Souris,
25054, 95, North Souris (North Souris average: 81)
25558, conf, North Souris,
26255, 100, Red Rock,
25517, 138, Red Rock,
27212, 100, Red Rock,
27211, 51, Red Rock,
25816, 34, Red Rock,
25752, 115, Red Rock,
25751, 56, Red Rock,
25750, 54, Red Rock,
25712, 38, Red Rock,
25702, 138, Red Rock,
25273, 75, Red Rock,
25214, 65, Red Rock,
25024, 132, Red Rock,

2012

"Corinthian"
24680, 114, Northeast Landa, 
23895, 133, North Souris,
23894, 146, North Souris,
23815, 134, North Souris,
23811, 134, North Souris,
23704, 141, North Souris,
23581, 189, North Souris,
23143, 189, North Souris,
23075, 80, North Souris,
23073, 140, North Souris,
22969, 105, North Souris,
22964, 139, North Souris,
22321, 149, North Souris,
22257, 139, North Souris,
22254, 140, North Souris,

"Legacy"
24177, 15, wildcat,
23399, 79, North Souris,
24148, 132, Red Rock,
22364, 138, Red Rock,


2011
"Corinthian"
22123, 128, North Souris,
22121, 94, North Souris,
22064, 110, North Souris

"Legacy"
21504, 126, North Souris,
21951, 157, North Souris, 
21821, 180, North Souris,
21820, 83, North Souris,
21549, 88, North Souris,
21482, 30, Red Rock,
21922, 94, Red Rock,
21921, 97, Red Rock,
21887, 182, Red Rock,
21389, 104, Red Rock,
21323, 125, Red Rock,

6 comments:

  1. Not sure who Company A and B are. I assume Legacy and Corinthian. Legacy acquired all of Corinthian's ND acreage in July of this year. Also in comparing the production of a Spearfish well to a Bakken well keep in mind drilling a Spearfish well costs about 1/6 the cost of a Bakken well, therefore 50 bbls a day is a pretty good return on investment. However the good spearfish area appears to be a extremely small area.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are absolutely correct on all counts. Yes, company A was Corinthian; company B was Legacy. There was some question whether Corinthian was getting better wells than Legacy. (Yes, I know, IPs are only a single data point but I was curious). It does appear Corinthian was getting slightly better wells based on IPs but not hugely different, I suppose (except in the eye of the beholder, perhaps).

      I have since updated the post, replacing Corinthian/Legacy for Company A/B and explaining their relationship a bit more.

      In the process of going through the exercise I got a better idea for the North Souris vs the Red Rock

      Delete
  2. We need to be mindful not only of the oil these wells produce, but the water as well. What I've seen on that front isn't very promising -- collectively, for instance, the North Souris and Red Rock fields are producing around twice as much water as oil. With wells that mostly start off producing relatively low amounts of oil to begin with, that kind of water cut can do some serious damage to the economics of the well. The same problem is evident with many of the Bakken wells drilled in Burke and Divide Counties and is partly responsible for the pullback in activity both of those counties have seen since the initial surge a couple of years ago to ensure acreage was held by production.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, you are correct. In fact, I wrote about that -- the problem with water -- in an e-mail to the reader who first noted the low IP reported October 22 (noted in the post above). Trucking all that water away is another expense.

      Delete
  3. the spacing on these wells is 320 acres

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's an interesting observation. The "average" Bakken well is 1280-acre spacing.

      1280/320 = 4.

      Multiply a typical Spearfish IP of 150 by 4 = 600, an "okay" IP for a Bakken well.

      Delete