Van Hook Field Update

Van Hook Field 
(News at bottom)

Original Post (results updated)

This field is just a few miles south of New Town and entirely within the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

The Van Hook field is nestled among some great producing fields: it shares borders with the Parshall to the east; the Sanish to the north; and the Big Bend to the west. Heart Butte is on the south. The field is "owned" by EOG with some very impressive Slawson wells and a couple of Marathon wells. Based on the number of permits canceled, new operators, name changes, permits lost/gained by competing operators suggests this has been a very dynamic field.

The Van Hook field is a rectangular field with a bit missing (under the river) and a bit added. The rectangle has four quadrants: NW (T152N-92W); NE (T152N-91W); SE (T151N-91W), and SW (T151N-92W).  The bit added is the northwest quadrant of T150N-92W. In all, Van Hook has exactly 100 sections.  Most of the sections have "long lateral" access to mineral rights under the river.

Based on rig count, the Van Hook may be the one of the most active fields right now. There are six (6) rigs on site in this field, with at least one rig in all quadrants except the southeast quadrant.

Here's the breakdown with comments:

NE (Van Hook Township; 152N-91W): 12 producing wells; 1 rig on site; 2 wells almost complete (#18432, rig off site; 18504, rig off site); and four (4) confidential wells, all multi-well pads. These are all EOG, Slawson and Whiting wells.

NW: 6 producing wells (NR; 1,274; 599; 290; 1,208; 825); 1 rig on site (#18595); 4 confidential wells; #18199 (290 bopd, going north) is on same pad as #17748 (1,208 bopd, going south).  #18407, Slawson, Ripper 1-22H, 2,369 is in this quadrant, still confidential.

SW: 1 producing well (309 bopd); 7 confidential wells, several multi-well pads; 4 rigs on site.

SE (Liberty Township, 151N-91W): 2 wells being drilled (rigs off-site); 2 rigs on site in this quadrant; 2 confidential wells; and four permits (#17992, #18038 and most interesting of all, the "Liberty" wells, #18827 and #18828).  These two (18827/18828 are on the same pad. Permit 18877 is on same pad as 17992. 18884 is new permit, on same pad as 18066, being drilled.The SE quadrant is along the east edge of the river, and the horizontals will start to go under the river in this area.

The addition to the rectangle: 5 confidential wells, 1 rig on site (#18630, Zenergy).

For the wells that I have IP data, EOG unless otherwise indicated (some have been added since original posting:

• 17280, 1,080, EOG, Van Hook 5-11H, s10/08;  t--; cum 371K 9/12; 
• 17349, 929, EOG, Marathon,Voyager 1-28H, t11/08; cum 169K 9/12; 
• 17463, 825 , EOG,  Van Hook 3-24H, t7/09; cum 306K 9/12; 
• 17613, 690, EOG, Van Hook 2-24H, t7/09; cum 385K 9/12;
• 17619, 1,571, EOG, Van Hook 6-14H,  t12/08; cum 438K 9/12;  
• 18220, 846, Slawson, Coyote 1-32H,  t9/09; cum 149K 9/12;
• 18251, 1,390, EOG, Van Hook 100-15H, 20k in first two months, TFS,  t11/09; cum 352K 9/12;
• 18327, 898, Slawson, Tarantula 1-16H, t3/10; cum 131K 9/12;
• 18407, 2,369, Slawson, Ripper 1-22H, t2/10; cum 164K 9/12;
• 18595, 1,131, Slawson, Atlantis Federal 1-34-35H, t7/10; cum 246K 9/12;
  

Ripper is in section 22-152-92, the northwest quadrant of the field. Needless to say, there is a lot of activity in that area right now. The Van Hook 6-14H in the northeast quadrant. The Van Hook 5-11H well was listed as a Van Hook well but is sited just inside the Parshall oil field and is a horizontal entirely within the Parshall. The Voyager 1-28H is a short lateral going directly south in section 28; there is a rig on site at #18495, Voyager 2-28H, but according to the GIS map server, it actually sits inside section 33 just on the south side of section 28. A more proper name would be Voyager 1-33H.

There are no hamlets, villages, or towns in this field; the field is just a few miles south of New Town.

NEWS

August 1, 2010: Spotted Hawk Development bringing excitement to the Van Hook.

May 19, 2010: New permit: #19047, Slawson, Revolver 1-35H.

May 6, 2010: New permit: #19000, Slawson, Goblin 1-26H.

April 30, 2010: [Update: PNC] One  new permits: #18979, EOG, Liberty LR 14-23H. According to this message board, Liberty LR 14-23H is on a 1600-acre spacing unit. This will require a 2.5 mile horizontal lateral. It looks like it will be spudded in late summer/autumn, 2010.


April 29, 2010: Two new permits: #18970, Slawson, Pike Federal 1-3-2H; #18971, EOG, Liberty 09-23H.

April 27, 2010: New permit, #18963, Zenergy, Dakota-3 Spotted Rabbit 14-23H (I guess Zenergy is competing with Slawson for best oil well names).

April 26, 2010: New permit, #18954, Slawson, Nightcrawler 2-17H, SESW 17-152N-91W.

April 6, 2010: Another Liberty well permit: #18884, Liberty 21-12H, SESE 12-151N-91W.

April 1, 2010: Another Liberty well (see March 18, 2010, entry): #18877, Liberty 103-13H, NWNW 13-151N-91W.

March 18, 2010: The EOG Liberty wells on one pad, section 36-151N-91W; interesting nomenclature for the EOG wells.


Updated: partial update, October 19, 2012

Bakken Stories of the Week

Week 15, 2010: April 13 - April 19, 2010

Week 14, 2010: April 6 - April 12, 2010

Week 13, 2010: March 30 - April 5, 2010

Week 12, 2010: March 23 -- March 30, 2010

Week 11, 2010: March 15 -- March 22, 2010

Week 10, 2010: March 7 -- March 14, 2020

Week 9, 2010: February 28, -- March 6, 2010

Activity in Fertile Township, Parshall Oil Field

I opined some time ago that due to bureaucratic red tape inside the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation (FBIR) resulted in about a 2-year delay in bringing the drilling inside the FBIR up to speed. I also opined that it appears 2010 will be the year that drilling in the FBIR will catch up with the rest of the Bakken.

To see how that prediction is playing out, one has only to look at Fertile Township, T151N-90W, entirely within the FBIR, and entirely within the prolific Parshall oil field, "owned" by EOG.

According to the NDIC GIS map server, there are four wells being drilled (two of them almost complete) in Fertile Township. In addition, there are three rigs currently on-site in Fertile Township. Another four (4) wells are on the confidential list, and there are another seven (7) permits yet to be acted upon. In other words, out of 36 sections, there is activity in eleven (11) sections.

EOG has put in as many as three wells in some of the sections in the Wayzetta Township, 153-90, also part of the Parshall field, so it is only logical to assume EOG will do the same in Fertile. EOG has just been granted permit #18800, the second file  number in section 20 of 151-90.  Both of these permits in section 20 have "simple" EOG nomenclature, so I assume they are simply development wells, both going into the Bakken pool. Perhaps one will target the Middle Bakken (MB) and the other will target the Three Forks Sanish, coming from opposite directions.

Fargo and Bismarck With Lowest Unemployment Nationally

This posting will eventually be moved to "I Can't Make This Stuff Up," but it points out how fortunate North Dakotans are.

This was published by the Associated Press on Friday, March 19, 2010: the four cities that best weathered the recession.

The four cities: Buffalo, NY; Rochester, NY; Oklahoma City; and, Mineeapolis.

Why? Because their jobless rate had the smallest increases over the past two years among cities with at least 1 million people.

Minneapolis: jobless rate, only 7.7%. The medical equipment industry in Minneapolis is credited with this "success."

Oklahoma City: jobless rate, only 6.7%. One-fifth (20%) of city's workers are employed by the state or local government. And even during a recession, governments don't cut employees. In addition, Federal stimulus money saved the government's budget and avoid layoffs. That's hardly good news.

Buffalo: jobless rate, 9.2 percent but the reporter says, happily, that Buffalo's "rate is below the national rate of 9.7 percent."  If that isn't ludicrous on its own, the reporter goes on to say that Buffalo was in so much economic trouble before the recession, it couldn't go much lower during the recession: ""Buffalo's jobless rate rose only 2.9 percentage points during the recession."  The dollar's plummet in value also resulted in Canadian shoppers flooding into Buffalo to take advantage of the weak US dollar against the Canadian dollar. In addition, Buffalo diversified out of heavy manufacturing industries (in other words: factories closed) into areas like health care (where wages and salaries are significantly lower for non-college graduates, the majority of workers in the health care system (technical and vocational nurses, receptionists, clerks, orderlies, custodial, laboratory technicians. Even entry level nurses probably earn less than steel workers.).

And finally, Rochester: the jobless rate here only grew 3 percent to only 8.7 percent, again well below Buffalo's 9.2 unemployment rate and the national rate of 9.7 Its economy has also diversified: its largest employer is now the University of Rochester. No, the university did not grow as much as Kodiak, based in that city, shrunk.

These are just the unemployment rates; the reporter did not address underemployment.

The article concludes by saying the unemployment rose in nearly all 372 metropolitan areas in January, but among cities of all sizes, the lowest unemployment rates were in Fargo, ND, and Bismarck, ND, 4.8 and 4.9 percent, respectively.

Biggest Bakken Stories of the Past Week

Week 11, 2010 (Mar 15 - Mar 21, 2010)

1. Price of oil touches $83/bbl before dropping back to $80.

2. Bottineau County getting more press: Sagebrush in the Madison; EOG in the Spearfish.

3. API: February Gasoline Demand Breaks Record

4. BEXP's operational update with three big wells.

5. UN defeats proposal to help save the polar bear.