Investopedia Update on Bakken Companies

Eric Fox, over at Investopedia, has a new article on the Bakken, dated September 28, 2010. He notes that Bakken companies in the core of the Bakken (North Dakota) are expanding into Montana, and specifically mentions Oasis, BEXP, Continental Resources, and EOG.  Eric Fix also mentions Rosetta Resources which has acreage only in Montana; I do not follow Rosetta Resources.

In fact, the current boom in the Williston Basin began on the western side of the Montana-North Dakota state line, in Montana, in Richland County, in Elm Coulee oil field. The drillers took that technology and moved it into North Dakota (I forget which came first: Parshall discovery in North Dakota or Elm Coulee in Montana -- but the boom began in Elm Coulee).

Now, with improved technology -- particularly increased fracturing -- drillers know that they can go back into Elm Coulee as well as open up new areas farther north, again along the Montana-North Dakota border. I doubt any of the original Elm Coulee wells had more than one stage of fracturing.

So, a second boom is occurring in Elm Coulee (to the best of my knowledge; I don't follow the Montana oil industry all that much) and a new (first-time) boom is occurring farther north, directly west and northwest of the city of Williston.

With regard to Rosetta, Fox reports that Rosetta will drill eight (8) vertical wells to better delineate the oil play in Montana. That I don't understand. To the best of my knowledge, the Bakken drillers have drilled very few vertical wells into the Bakken for the purpose of studying the Bakken. It would be interesting to see the source document about the vertical wells to which Eric Fox refers.

I do know that North Dakota has the absolutely best geologic record of the formations in western North Dakota. It is my understanding that nowhere in the world is the geology of any oil basin so well studied. Starting years ago, drillers were required, by las, to send core samples to the state every time they drilled a well, whether it was dry or economic or a gusher. The state (specifically, the North Dakota Geologic Survey) has a phenomenal amount of information, and it's possible this is not as true in Montana, and thus the need for vertical wells for the purpose of studying the geologic formations.

More on this later.