An agenda item for the North Dakota Industrial Commission back in March, 2010, was whether to increase acreage spacing in general in Williston Basin. The cases in question were 12244, 12245, and 12246. I have not heard how those cases turned out but there's currently an indication that this is indeed what is happening. Leases in areas that were once 640-acre spacing, are now being permitted for 1280-acre spacing and 2560-acre spacing. I also noted this for the hearing dockets scheduled for later this month (May, 2010). I didn't place all that information in my summary but when you go to the NDIC hearing docket, it is easy to spot: the increased number of requests for larger spacing units.
Mineral rights owners are concerned but the NDIC has a number of interests to consider. My understanding is that the farmers, even those who benefit from oil royalties, are concerned too much land is being taken out of wheat/other grain farming for oil pads. It doesn't seem like much -- at least to me it didn't seem like much until someone with a farmer's interests in mind wrote me and brought up that issue. What I appreciated most about his/her comments was that "we" need to make this a win/win for both farmers and non-farmer royalty owners.
Something tells me "we" could learn something from Oklahoma and Texas.
Something tells me in the big scheme of things, if one can get about the same amount of oil out of the ground with fewer wells, the decision shouldn't be all that difficult. My gut feeling is that the initial production numbers may be different, the first year of production may be different, but the EUR will probably be about the same whether it's a 640-acre spaced well or a 1280- / 2560-acre spaced well.
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