New Acronym In The Bakken: NCW -- December 8, 2016

This is so incredibly cool and why I love to blog.

A reader over at the discussion group asked a very interesting question about something I had not seen before.

Look at these two scout tickets (edited), and pay attention to "Well Status" and "Status."

Scout ticket #1:

NDIC File No: 23793     API No: 33-053-04392-00-00
Well Type: OG     Well Status: NCW     Status Date: 11/30/2016     Wellbore type: Horizontal
Current Operator: CONTINENTAL RESOURCES, INC.
Current Well Name: MONROE 3-2HTotal Depth: 24786     Field: BANKS
Spud Date(s):  4/19/2015
Completion Data
   Pool: BAKKEN     Status: SI     Date: 7/25/2015

Scout ticket #2:

NDIC File No: 31308     API No: 33-061-03713-00-00     CTB No: 218808
Well Type: OG     Well Status: NC     Status Date: 8/26/2015     Wellbore type: Horizontal
Current Operator: EOG RESOURCES, INC.
Current Well Name: WAYZETTA 96-3019HTotal Depth: 17852     Field: PARSHALL
Spud Date(s):  7/27/2015 
Completion Data
   Pool: BAKKEN     Status: SI     Date: 8/26/2015

The "well status": NCW in scout ticket #1 and NC scout ticket #2.
"Status": SI

I had never noticed that before but a sharp-eyed reader did. I just always saw "SI/NC."

It took a bit of looking and it appears others have had the same question. This is the best answer I've found, from peakoilbarrel.com:

I compared last months well types with this as below, based on the info in the GIS map on the ND DMR web site – I don’t know exactly when these are down loaded but I think it is more up to date than the monthly report numbers. The interesting thing to me was that the drilling and completions are entirely separate. Drilled wells become NC, and NC wells become A (active) or for a few TA (temporary abandoned) or NCW (Non completed waiver if they have gone over the two year limit I think this means). This makes sense so the drilling and completions crew can optimise their own work without interfering with each other. But also it means there has to be a large inventory of DUCs – each company needs at least a months worth of inventory, and maybe as much as 6 months, just to be able to plan ahead. So talk of a sudden draw down on DUCs to provide a big production boost is probably not correct.

In addition, in the very old literature, back to the 1920's I can find a lot of references to NCW but not what it stands for. It would make sense that in the "old" days when all wells were completed as expeditiously as possible it would take a waiver for an exception.

So, my hunch is that the reader is correct, NCW = non-completed well with a waiver.

Prior to 2014, the NDIC rule was that wells had to be completed within a year of being spudded.

In 2014, the NDIC rule changed: without a waiver, operators were given an extra year, but they still needed to be completed within two years.

I assume, that operators can apply for a waiver if for some reason they cannot complete a well within the new rule.