Happy Birthday To You, Mr Woodrow Star; It's Only Make Believe -- November 21, 2015

Updates

June 4, 2022: update here; well is still active.

 

June 18, 2019: the well is off-line.

November 15, 2018: the Woodrow Star "A" (#1987) must be someone's pet project. After being off-line most of 2018 and looking like we were coming to the end, all of sudden, production perked up:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
SANISH	9-2018	30	458	452	338	886	0	481
SANISH	8-2018	31	408	232	315	863	0	475
SANISH	7-2018	31	413	450	395	696	0	296
SANISH	6-2018	27	446	216	272	351	0	0
SANISH	5-2018	9	62	0	125	33	0	0
SANISH	4-2018	18	88	0	170	141	0	0
SANISH	3-2018	6	252	0	105	48	0	0
SANISH	2-2018	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
SANISH	1-2018	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
SANISH	12-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
SANISH	11-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
SANISH	10-2017	23	41	458	30	186	0	82
SANISH	9-2017	30	665	449	100	812	0	580

July 10, 2018: "they've" managed to squeeze another two years out of this well! Cumulative is now 1,103,122 bbls; producing only a few days each month; producing less than a 100 bbls/month. Sixty years old.

March 11, 2016: a reader sent me some photographs of Woodrow Star "A" 1 this past week. I've also updated the production profile:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
SANISH	12-2016	31	929	874	78	1163	0	918
SANISH	11-2016	30	904	677	80	1130	0	898
SANISH	10-2016	31	1002	1046	78	1252	0	1004
SANISH	9-2016	29	869	896	70	1125	0	897
SANISH	8-2016	31	973	1098	133	1223	0	975
SANISH	7-2016	31	1007	896	72	1228	0	982
SANISH	6-2016	30	1007	1086	93	1258	0	1018
SANISH	5-2016	31	961	890	58	1228	0	980
SANISH	4-2016	30	995	1109	62	1227	0	9

 
November 22, 2015: this area brought in a record BLM bid back in 2013.

November 22, 2015: a reader provided a most interesting backstory to the Woodrow Star "A" well -- the original note is in the comment section below, but I brought it up here so that it can be searched by Google, for example:

Here is some more history on the Woodrow Starr wells. The original well at this location was drilled in 1953 by Pan American. It was targeted to test the Devonian and Silurian formations but these proved to be dry.

Pan American did find good oil shows in an unnamed zone at the top of the Devonian. They cased the well and it flowed oil from this section which they called the "Sanish Sand".

Later this zone became known as the Bakken.

Between 1953 and 1958 the Woodrow Starr #1 produced 279,254 barrels of oil (and just 98 bbls of water). Then casing collapsed in the well so Pan American drilled a replacement well just 300 feet to the north. These two wells have a combined production of 1.3 million barrels of oil and all from 20 to 30 feet vertical section.

They perforated both what we now know as the Middle Bakken and top bench of the Three Forks. There is obviously natural fractures in this area with the northwest/southeast trending Antelope Fault line just east of these two wells. Also, note that the recently permitted EOG 32 well spacing unit is just a short distance to the west of the Starr wells.

The spelling of the "last name" of the well is of interest. The first well was #341, Woodrow Starr 1 (with two "r's").  Except on a couple of documents in the file report, Star/Starr is generally spelled Star (with one "r"). A Google search of the internet suggests the correct spelling is with one "r."

The second well, 300 to the north was #1987, Woodrow Star "A" 1.

November 22, 2015: on November 3, 2015, I posted several graphics with the 30+ EOG permits/wells in the area. In those graphics, I did not post where these EOG permits/wells were in relationship to the "original" Woodrow Star(r) wells. This graphic shows their relationship:

The west-east separation of 2.4 miles is shown in the graphic.

Original Post

 

This million-barrel well recently celebrated its 57th birthday:

• 1987, 150, CLR/Pan American/Prima, Woodrow Star "A" 1, Antelope field; Sanish; t10/58; cum 1.099568 million bbls 5/17;

It is a vertical well in Antelope oil field.

It was spud in August, 1958, before many of my readers were born. It was tested in October, 1958, and produced 1,400 bbls in the first six days of production. It produced close to 6,000 bbls / month in the early months, but then declined to 2,000 to 3,000 bbls monthly through the early 1970s. It had some rough periods in the late 1970's and then again from 1994 - 2014. But this year, it's back up to about 1,000 bbls per month, as much as three times as much oil compared to many years between 1994 and 2014.

It had record production in July 1964, producing 7,500 bbls of oil that month. Early on it produced no water and no gas, but is now producing a very small amount of water - very small amount, and a bit of gas.

In 1995, the operator "elected to designate this well as a stripper well."

I assume Harold Hamm sent a birthday card to Mr Woodrow Star "A" wishing the well another 57 great years of production.

Production for the past year:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
SANISH	9-2015	30	1034	1361	2	1249	0	1009
SANISH	8-2015	31	933	432	2	1418	0	1201
SANISH	7-2015	31	954	1118	18	1031	230	576
SANISH	6-2015	29	832	1109	7	930	697	21
SANISH	5-2015	31	1113	1112	23	1109	861	0
SANISH	4-2015	30	896	912	13	806	608	0
SANISH	3-2015	31	1069	887	30	906	673	0
SANISH	2-2015	25	788	713	73	656	468	0
SANISH	1-2015	31	1181	1166	17	1029	781	0
SANISH	12-2014	31	814	919	22	698	457	0
SANISH	11-2014	30	762	677	17	765	525	0
SANISH	10-2014	31	687	871	223	880	632	0
SANISH	9-2014	30	681	696	33	772	533	0

Production in calendar year, 2009:

SANISH	12-2009	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
SANISH	11-2009	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
SANISH	10-2009	5	2	0	0	0	0	0
SANISH	9-2009	4	44	0	0	3	3	0
SANISH	8-2009	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
SANISH	7-2009	1	2	0	0	0	0	0
SANISH	6-2009	1	22	0	0	6	6	0
SANISH	5-2009	1	3	168	10	2	2	0
SANISH	4-2009	3	10	0	224	5	5	0
SANISH	3-2009	0	0	0	0	3	3	0
SANISH	2-2009	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
SANISH	1-2009	1	2	0	17	0	0	0

Production in its first year, 1958 - 1959:

SANISH	10-1959	12	2334	0	10	0	0	0
SANISH	9-1959	26	3540	0	12	0	0	0
SANISH	8-1959	17	2488	0	10	0	0	0
SANISH	7-1959	16	2431	0	12	0	0	0
SANISH	6-1959	28	3823	0	7	0	0	0
SANISH	5-1959	17	3280	0	6	0	0	0
SANISH	4-1959	27	3863	0	6	0	0	0
SANISH	3-1959	28	4664	0	6	0	0	0
SANISH	2-1959	24	3651	0	5	0	0	0
SANISH	1-1959	28	5555	0	6	0	0	0
SANISH	12-1958	28	5523	0	4	0	0	0
SANISH	11-1958	22	5118	0	4	0	0	0
SANISH	10-1958	6	1382	0	0	0	0	0

In November, 1958, the #1 song in America: "It's Only Make Believe," Conway Twitty. From wiki:

"It's Only Make Believe" is a song written by Jack Nance and American country music artist Conway Twitty, and produced by MGM Records' Jim Vienneau, released by Twitty as a single in July 1958.

The single topped both U.S. and the UK Singles Chart, and was Twitty's only number-one single on the pop charts of either country.

On a segment of Pop Goes The Country, Twitty states the single was a hit in 22 different countries and sold over 8 million copies.

It is believed that Twitty wrote his part of the song while sitting on a fire escape outside his hotel room, to escape the summer heat, in Hamilton, Ontario. Twitty had come to Canada at the request of another American singer, Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins, due to Hawkins saying to Twitty that Canada was the 'promised land' for music.

It's Only Make Believe, Conway Twitty
So incredibly perfect on so many levels to accompany this post.

What I learned from comments at YouTube regarding this song and Mr Conway Twitty:

• this song has a full two octave range which is what opera singers need...and Conway nailed every note
• yet another talent from the poor shacks of the Arkansas Delta...picking cotton and singing is all they had to do...J.R. Cash, Levon, Helm, Glen Campbell, Al Green, Charlie Rich, and on and on
• tell me this ain't Elvis
• 1958: when the chrome was thick and the women were straight
• the best hair of all time
• Conway went on to found Twitter
• little known facts:  Charted #17 in Zimbabwe, #8 in Gondwana, and even more impressively, on the dark side of the moon it remains in the top 100 to this day
• Conway died at the age of 59 -- about the same age as the Woodrow Star well is now -- which is still going strong