Kittleson Slough Update

Updates

May 22, 2012: Three wells reported IPs today; they are three of the 8 wells on 2560-acre spacing; see April 30, 2012 entry below.

• 19942, 754, EOG, Lostwood 1-1201H,
  19943, 677, EOG, Lostwood 18-1224H,
  19944, 212, EOG, Lostwood 2-1301H,

April 30, 2012: Eight Kittleson Slough wells on 2,560-acre spacing. 

Original Post

The Kittleson Slough is a small oil field, currently only 47 sections, tucked in between the Cottonwood on the west and the Clear Water on the east. (Which reminds me: I suppose I should update the Clear Water -- it is a very, very active EOG field.) (These fields are north and slightly northeast of the prolific Sanish and Parshall fields. These fields start to push the eastern edge of the North Dakota Bakken.)

The Cottonwood is a new field ("discovered" by Fidelity a couple years ago) and has been a mediocre field to date. The Clear Water is gaining a lot of headlines with all the EOG activity currently going on there.

What might make the Kittleson Slough interesting to follow is this: a) as stated it sits between a couple of fields with a bit of interest; and, b) Slawson has several wells currently on the confidential list. These wells do not have release dates as yet. It's my understanding that if a well does not have a release date, the well is not completed. Does this mean these wells are drilled and they are waiting to be fracked? I don't know.

But Slawson has had some interesting plays and it will be interesting to see what Slawson can do in the KS. The KS has historically been less than stellar. The few wells that I have data for reported IPs of well under 500. It appears that IPs in the range of 250 are to be expected.

Approximately one-half of two townships make up the KS: 158-91 (north) and 157-91 (south).  Slawson has a line of wells, stretching west to east, in the southern half (update March 25, 2012 -- note all the PNC permits):

17548, PNC, section 17, Menace 1-17H,
17546, PNC, section 19, Probe 1-19H,
17588, PNC, section 18, Scout 1-18H,
17549, PNC, section 15, Bonzai 1-15H, 
17474, PNC, section 14, Sorcerer 1-14H,
17479, section 13, Raven 1-13H, confidential list, no date
17385, 303, section 21, Polaris 1-21H, 303, Oct 16, 2009
17597, PNC, section 20, Sergeant 1-20H,
18068, 236, section 16, Colt 1-16H, 236, Sept 28, 2009

For more on Kittleson Slough and Slawson permits/wells, click on this link. 

Incidentally, regarding IPs: all things being equal, I would assume a privately held company would like to report IPs on the low side so as not to drive up lease rates. I can think of no reason why privately held companies would want to use methods that "artificially inflate" IPs. Publicly held companies, on the other hand, are caught in a bind. Reporting high IPs leads to higher lease rates, but it also leads to more interest in their publicly-traded shares. I would assume that if Slawson keeps drilling these wells, they are economically viable.

Hess has a long lateral in the Kittleson Slough, 17343, RS-Agribank A-157-91-1102H-1, which reported an IP of 223.  A BEXP short lateral, 17090, Johnson 1-33H, reported an IP of 568. The Bakken Shale Discussion Board noted that the Johnson 1-33H was "hyped" by BEXP and many folks were disappointed by that well. It was back in 2008 when price of oil plummeted. Hmmm. Was the Johnson 1-33 named after the 2009 explorer of the year, Mr Michael Johnson, who is credited with discovering the Parshall oil field, based on his studies of the Elm Coulee?