Yahoo!Financial: HES (Hess Oil)
NEWS AND COMMENT
January 26, 2011:
4Q10 earnings.
December 29, 2010:
Hess completes AEZ acquisition; bought TRZ one month ago. Acquisitions push Hess acreage to over 750,000 net acres in the Bakken.
First quarter, 2010, earnings call.
Fourth quarter, 2009, earnings call (4Q), Bakken specific highlights:
CAPEX, 2010: $1 billion
Increase rig count from 3 to 10 by middle of 2011; gradual ramp up
Expectation: EUR of one million barrels per dual lateral
Hess has only four (4) dual laterals in the Bakken right now
Expectation: 10,000 bopd currently to 80,000 bopd by 2015
Bakken wells economical at $40/barrel
For EUR, see FAQs, # 7.
Down below I talked about the relative poor IPs for Hess. Some have commented on my observation; note comments.
We now have another data point for a Hess well; apparently #18194 (RS-ENANDER A-155-91- 0607H-1) is still on confidential status, but reports suggest this well produced 4,387 barrels (this link is now broken; total oil, does not include gas) in October, which would be about 140 bbls/day. I don't (yet) understand the Hess nomenclature but the "0607H-1" suggests a "long" lateral and looking at the GIS map server, most of the producing wells in the immediate area are "long" (2 sections; 1280-acre spacing) wells. On a "per section" basis, this well produced, on average about 70 bbls/day in October, early in its production history. Lots of questions: has the well been frac'ed? If so, how many stages? Is the well choked back for some reason? Does Hess have a different strategy for maximizing EUR? Does Hess calculate IPs significantly different than other producers? Be that as it may, Hess has been granted two permits in the Clear Water field which is being aggressively pursued by EOG. I have all those wells on my wells-to-watch list. December 16, 2009.
From the 3rd quarter, 2009, analyst's call via
Bakken Shale Discussion Group, November 13:
Hess will double number of rigs in "the Bakken," from 3 (2009) to 6 or 7 (2010)
Hess will move toward $1 billion/year in capital expenditure next 4 - 5 years
But the discussion group noted something much more interesting: lackluster wells.
We have all noted that some producers seem to have lackluster wells compared to others. One of the folks noted that Hess is one of those with less-than-stellar results in North Dakota. But an exception: Hess reported an IP of 1,998 boepd for the RS-Feldman. This was reported in NOG's recent update; NOG also noted that Hess used a 14-stage completion on the RS-Feldman well. That may be Hess's best well to date in the Bakken. (The RS-Feldman well is file # 17696, about 3.75 miles northwest of Stanley.) UPDATE: NDIC reported that the IP for the RS-Feldman well -- file # 17696 (this link is now broken) -- was 570 bbls/day. Also, note the decline rate from 16,000 bbls in the first full month of production to 9,000 barrels in the third month of production (most recent data). January 19, 2010. [Update, November 5, 2013: to date, this well has produced almost 200,000 bbls of oil; 198,979 bbls to be exact.]
Comment: some weeks ago I opined on the Bakken Shale Discussion Group that "in the old days [two months ago]," no one was doing multi-stage fracturing, but now it was becoming the norm. Someone responded, taking me to task, saying that multi-stage fracturing had been around for at least two years. [In fact, multi-stage fracturing has been around for at least two decades.]
I was mis-read. I was using hyperbole; of course I was aware that multi-stage fracuring was being used in the Bakken. The point I was making was that it was my opinion that not all producers were using multi-stage fracturing. It appears I may have been correct.
People who follow the industry much more closely than I do were surprised to see Hess using a 14-stage fracture stimulation. Hess has had lackluster results in the Bakken according to some; with the multi-stage fracture stimulation they may have a good well.
The thread also states: Hess drilled a Bakken/TFS stacked lateral (EN-Uran-154-93-1213H-1 / file number 18228). This well: 225, reported Mar 3, 2010; not exciting.
Fidelity (MDU): same problem?
On another note, I have also been struck by the uniformly poor Fidelity (MDU) wells in the Bakken. My hunch is that they have also been using one-stage fraction stimulation. November 14, 2009.
When reviewing the entire database, I did find a couple of very good Fidelity wells based on IPs. December 16, 2009.