Nineteen (19) New Permits in Bakken, ND, USA Including a Six-Well Multi-Pad

Folks: I have been tracking and transcribing daily activity reports to my databases since 2006. There has been a significant increase in the number of permits being issued. In the old days (last year), a day with six new permits was exciting. Recently, North Dakota has been granting double digit number of permits, usually between eleven and fifteen. I think fifteen was the previous maximum in one day in this boom (at least recently). Today, November 2, 2010, North Dakota granted nineteen permits. This is huge, absolutely huge. If anything thought the boom in the Bakken was leveling off appears to be mistaken.

At $5.25 million/well, these 19 wells, when drilled, represent $100 million. I would assume much of the cost is in personnel (direct, indirect, pad preparation, oil service companies) and material (sand, water, proppants) and much of this stays inside the state's economy. This is before the state starts collecting royalties. In a single day, the state of North Dakota authorized more than $100 million worth of new wells.

Operators: Hess (6), Encore (3), Helis (2), Samson (2), EOG, Whiting, BR, Zavanna, Zenergy, and CLR.

Fields: Ross, Sand Creek, Siverston, North Tobacco Garden, Bailey, Grail, Glass Bluff, Reunion BAy, Elidah, Robinson Lake, and three wildcats.

Hess is putting in a six-well multi-pad in Robinson Lake, SENE 32-155N-93W.

The permits include a new Whiting well in the South Heart area, a wildcat, targeting, again, the TFS.