According to the press release today, CLR now has 864,559 net acres leased in the Bakken (mostly North Dakota, but also in Montana).
If one divides the net acreage by 640 (the number of acres in a section), CLR has the equivalent of 1,351 sections. Let's round that off to 1,350.
Based on Whiting's activities in the best of the Bakken, one can imagine six wells in each section, three for the middle Bakken formation and three for the Three Forks Sanish. In addition, Hess has a number of six-well multi-pads.
In the best of the Bakken, the EUR for a well is estimated to be as high as 750,000 barrels, or more. Being very conservative, let's put the average EUR for these hypothetical CLR wells at 450,000 barrels.
Six (6) wells x 1,350 sections = 8,100 wells.
8,100 wells x 0.450 million barrels = 3,645 million barrels = 3.645 billion barrels.
I was going to calculate the dollar value at the wellhead based on $60/barrel, but my little calculator couldn't go up that far.
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Current estimates of potential recoverable oil from Montana and North Dakota Bakken, from the Bismarck Tribune, October 5, 2010:
Two years ago, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that up to 4.3 billion barrels of oil could be recovered from the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana, using current technology. The agency called it the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed.
A study released this year by North Dakota's Industrial Commission said current technology could lead to the recovery of about 1.9 billion barrels in the Three Forks-Sanish formation in North Dakota.CLR, by itself, could account for much of that.
Again, just back-of-the-envelope calculations.
