Thursday, November 4, 2010

Eleven (11) New Permits (Bakken, ND, USA)

Operators: Whiting (3), EOG (3), CLR, BR, KOG, BEXP, and Newfield

Fields: Clear Water, Murphy Creek, Twin Buttes, Hanson, Painted Woods and six (6) wildcats.

More than 50% of new permits today were wildcats. Interesting. No new permits in the "big" fields like the Sanish or the Parshall.

Two of the EOG wells will be on the same pad and are wildcats (the Short Prairie wells in 12-154-104).  This section is next to Painted Woods, and about two miles south of Hebron, almost on the Montana-North Dakota state line.

It is amazing to see how fast Whiting is developing its Lewis and Clark prospect. Among these eleven new permits today, are three Whiting permits that are all in the Lewis and Clark prospect, or the South Heart area (wildcats in Golden Valley and Stark counties). Incredible.

Right now, I am most excited by aggressiveness of CLR and WLL.

The 3Q10 earnings report by EOG suggests just how expensive this area is to develop, and possibly how competitive it is getting in the Bakken, suggesting to me we may see significant changes in the number of companies operating in the Bakken next year or 2012. I could imagine three or four big companies ultimately develop the Bakken, the others being bought up by the few remaining operators.

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