Another Awesome Day in the Bakken

This was another awesome day for the Bakken. The March dockets have been released.  A great Anschutz well came off the confidential list.

1. I've transcribed the March dockets. Abbreviated.

a. Lots of sweeping changes proposed.  Bigger spacing units: a commission proposal for 2560-acre spacing units for ALL future horizontal wells; elimination of setbacks.

b. Look at all the CLR Eco-Pads. I count at least eleven (11) Eco-Pads. CLR will put four wells on each pad. Two pads (8 wells) in one 2560-spacing unit. CLR currently drilling one Eco-Pad in the Bakken.

c. Note more requests for horizontal wells in the Madison Pool -- something we are seeing more of.

d.  Case #12284: Questar, extending the Heart Butte Field and creating 24 640-acre spacing units in Dunn, McLean and Mountrail Counties, with two horizontal wells in each (48 wells).

e. Hess with another request to put in six wells on one pad (?) in a 2560-acre spacing unit.

2. New wells reporting: look at the Anschutz well, Martin 34-31H, that came off the confidential list today: 1,666 bopd IP and then look at this posting. I doubt Anschutz is "inflating" IP numbers. History of Anschutz here and the Wikipedia version. 

3. NDIC is on track to issue 1,175 permits in 2010. Through the first 59 calendar days of 2010, NDIC has granted 190 new permits in North Dakota.  For comparison, there were 627 permits issued in 2009, 954 permits in 2008, and 497 permits in 2007.  In the first 60 calendar days of 2008, only 118 permits had been issued compared to the 190 new permits in the first 59 calendar days of 2010.

4. Another 100-unit oil railroad tanker facility approved by Stark County (Dickinson) commissioners and could be operational by October, 2010. This is the second such railroad operation to ship oil out of North Dakota. EOG was first with a similar facility in Stanley, ND, which went operational New Year's Eve, 2009, about one month ahead of schedule.