The Charlson Field and Encore

Locator: 10010ENCORE. 

Updates

January 14, 2024: looking at three "almost identical" wells with regard to location and length:

• 18814, 1,754, Oasis/SM Energy/St Mary, Wilson 8-20H, 91k as of May, 2011; less than a year old, t10/10; cum 249K 10/16; cum 401K 11/23;
• 26374, 992, Oasis, Loraine Federal 1X-20H, t2/14; cum 414K 11/23;
• 26228, 1,097, Oasis, Wilson Federal 1X-20H, t2/14; cum 4544K 11/23;

Original Post

The Charlson field is one of the smaller fields in the Williston Basin, about 50 sections, not even two full townships in size. (Note: the most prolific ND well, to the best of my knowledge, is in the Charlson).

For being such a small field, there certainly is a lot of activity. Eight recent permits (in past three or four months) all in the Charlson:

• 18814, 1,754, SM Energy/St Mary, Wilson 8-20H, 91k as of May, 2011; less than a year old, t10/10; cum 249K 10/16; cum 401K 11/23;
  
• 18815, 853, SM Energy/St Mary, Norby 9-20H, 81k as of May, 2011; less than a year old; t10/10; cum 290K 10/16; cum 366K 11/23;
  
• 18816, 1,415, SM Energy/St Mary, Norby 16-20H, 66K as of May, 2011; one year old, t10/10; cum 243K 10/16; cum 329K 11/23;
  
• 19464, PNC, Denbury/Encore, Swenson 31-33SEH
• 19544, 1,032, XTO/Denbury/Encore, Gilbertson 34-26NEH, t6/11; cum 216K 10/16;
• 19545, PNC, Denbury/Encore, Gilberton 34-26NWH
• 19619, PNC, Denbury/Encore, Charlson 24-33H
• 19625,PNC, Denbury/Encore, Charlson 24-34H 

19625 will probably parallel Encore's #17113, a short lateral, PNC
19619 will probably parallel Encore's #17225, a short lateral, PNC

The Gilbertson wells are on the same pad, and will probably parallel Encore's #18703, 888; and, BR's #17356, 356.  Most of the wells in this area have been short laterals, although the BR well is a long lateral.

I'm eager to see the results of the Norby wells; these are three wells all in the same section, but all on different pads. As active as the Charlson has been in the past, and as small as the Charlson is, it is remarkable there has not been much activity in the immediate area of the Norby wells.

BR spudded 17356, a long lateral, back in 2008. It had a relatively unremarkable IP of 356 but as of May, 2011, has produced a cumulative 95,000 barrels of oil. It has probably paid for itself at the wellhead.

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Note the number of Encore wells, these coming after Encore had been bought by Denbury.  

The link takes you to a Wall Street Journal story that talks about further methods to extract oil from the Bakken. According to a Denbury spokesman:

... as a rough rule of thumb, about 15% to 30% of the oil in a reservoir can be extracted using the underground formation’s pressure. A water flood, essentially pumping in water to push out the oil, can get that figure up to 40%. A successful enhanced-oil recovery, or EOR, operation with carbon dioxide can get another 10% to 20%.

Saudi Arabia started using a water flood sometime during the past decade. DNR is looking to build a 200-mile carbon-dioxide pipeline in the Rockies. However, a report back in April, 2010, suggests that DNR has a cash-flow problem and this project remains in the planning stages.

I don't follow DNR closely enough to know where this project stands. DNR and Encore Energy Partners has scheduled an earnings call for November 4, 2010. It will be interesting to see if there is any update on this pipeline.