General Info on the Bakken and Specific Info on the Bice Test

Lots of information at this discussion group regarding:

• CLR: Bice 1-29H and Bice 2-29H test
• Zones
• The Bakken pool as a continuous reservoir

The issue of zones seems to be getting into the weeds for most of us but if interested, that link provides a good place to start.

However, the link provides a very nice reminder that it is the Bakken pool that is THE large continuous reservoir in the Williston Basin. Again, it is reiterated that there is no other continuous reservoir in the Williston Basin that approaches the size of the Bakken pool. [The day following this post, the North Dakota Industrial Commission officially announces that the Three Forks Sanish may have as much recoverable oil as the Bakken in North Dakota.]

It should be noted that the Madison group (non-continuous pool, I suppose, or a much smaller continuous reservoir) has produced over 900 million barrels of oil since oil was first discovered in North Dakota (1951). On the other hand, the Bakken has produced almost 120 million barrels of oil. The first horizontal well into the Bakken was drilled in 1987. With that data and the reminder that the Bakken is so much bigger, I don't know if I should be inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken or similarly exuberant about the other fields yet to be fully exploited with new technology, including enhanced oil recovery, which I don't think has been used anywhere in the North Dakota Bakken yet.

Actually, just the fact that it is estimated that it will take 10,000 to 20,000 wells to fully exploit the Bakken and another 10,000 wells for the other work that needs to be done is staggering. In the current boom, there has never been as many as 1,000 wells completed in one year.

In fact, as long as I'm rambling, either my math is wrong or something doesn't make sense. It's my understanding that most sources suggest that the Bakken has about 3.65 billion barrels of recoverable oil. 900 million is pretty close to one billion. It's hard for me to believe that if the Bakken is so much bigger than the other formations, and if the technology has improved so much over the past 60 years, that the Bakken is ultimately going to give up only 3.7 times as much as the Madison Group has given up to date. The "basic analysis of the Bakken" estimates the drilling program will not be complete until 2030, and that production will continue through 2100.

Like I said, my math must be wrong. Someone will correct me on it.

Whiting First Quarter 2010 Financial and Operating Results

Full report here.
Note: some figures are rounded. Typographical errors possible. See original report for specifics.

Highlights

• 59,865 boepd, Q1 2010 compared to 54,320 boepd, Q1 2009
• Bakken production (Sanish / Parshall) increased 23% in March 2010 over December 2010
• Production guidance for 2010: raised to 11.5% to 13% over 2009

Production in Q1 2010 sets record: 5.39 million boe (80% oil)

• Represents a 10% increase over Q1 2009
• The production increases were primarily due to the Bakken play

Financial

• $1.60 per basic share/$1.46 per diluted share vs 2009 $0.92 per basic and diluted share
• First quarter discretionary cash flow of $215 million exceeded $125 CAPEX
• Paid down debt; reduced borrowings from $160 million to $100 million

IPs: 24-hour tests

Operations

Sanish Field

• 15,000 boepd
• Completed 19 wells in this quarter; total of 83 WLL-operated wells in the Sanish
• One of these: TFS, Anderson 11-7TFH, with an IP of 1,262.
• 2010: plans to complete 86 operated wells (48 net wells)
• 76 are planned Bakken; 10 are planned TFS

• WLL completed 17-mile pipeline from Sanish field to Enbridge pipeline at Stanley, ND
• Capacity: 65,000 bbls/day; currently moving 10,000 bbls/day
• Expects to move 2/3rd of its production by pipeline by end of 2010
• Saves $1 - $2/bbl vs truck

Parshall Field

• 6,500 boepd
• Has participated in 116 wells in the Parshall
• 111 are producing; 4 are awaiting completion; and one is being drilled

NOG's Policy Statement on IPs

With all the discussion about IPs, this is a very nice press release from NOG.

Note their comments about IPs, near the bottom of the press release:

"Northern Oil continues to believe that early 24 hour rates are not useful in determining the economics of a well. Northern Oil is focused on well payout, which, in our core Slawson Exploration drilling program, we expect to occur four months on average following commencement of production. As previously guided, Northern Oil will begin to report well flow rates as far out as 60 days, when available."

By the way, if you have an interest in the Bakken, Slawson, or NOG, you should look at that press release: the average flow rates and the number of wells NOG is completing is eye-watering.

I have to thank an "anonymous" reader for alerting me to this press release. There is just too much information to keep track of.

Nitty Gritty on Drilling a Horizontal

If you want to know a bit more about drilling a horizontal well , click here, and scroll down about 2/3rds of the way down, to Apr 21, 5:30 a.m., to see what "Degas" has written about horizontal drilling.

Actually it's quite interesting.

Pure trivia. But I love it.

Samson Oil and Gas Limited (SSN)

NEWS

February 26, 2022: to recomplete an old well, using EOR.

February 20, 2022: closing the loop. Samson Oil & Gas selling Williston Basin assets. Link here. 

June 28, 2013: SSN sells Montana acreage to raise money to develop its Stockyard Creek prospect.

April 16, 2013: SSN to acquire 1,225 net acres to add to its Rainbow Prospect. 

March 22, 2013: Operational update, 2013. Stockyard Creek and north of Minot. Exciting.

January 18, 2013:  Major update; acreage swap makes SSN an operator in the northern half (Northern Tier) of Stockyard Creek; will develop 14 wells at 160-acre spacing.

December 26, 2011: update on SSN. 

November 23, 2011: There was an announcement that the investor group, KKR, is buying into the Bakken. It is important not to get confused by the announcement. KKR is NOT buying the Samson Oil and Gas company (SSN), an Australian oil and gas company that holds acreage in the Bakken but does not operate any of its own wells there. This site is about SSN.  Rather, KKR is buying Samson Investment Company, Tulsa, OK , one of the largest exploration and production companies in the US.

July 28, 2011: SSN finalizes acquisition of 20,000 acres of Williston Bakken in Montana, just across the border. 

July 5, 2011: Motley Fool shows some interest in SSN.

June 24, 2011: Samson Oil and Gas to acquire an additional 90,000 acres in the Williston Basin Bakken. All in Roosevelt County, Montana, just west of Williston, ND.

March 26, 2011: SSN to sell its gas assets in Green River Basin, Wyoming, for $6.3 million.

March 22, 2011: Update on Samson's fracking of Rodney and Everett in the Stockyard Creek.

February 2, 2011:  SeekingAlpha: cautious on SSN. I agree.

January 17, 2011: Updates, regarding recent significant price move.

August 30, 2010: Delay in completing Gary 1-24H, but no suggestion of any long-term problem; well is operated by Zavanna.

July 12, 2010: new corporate presentation.

June 11, 2010: For future reference: an open letter from the president, Samson Oil and Gas, regarding the BP spill in the gulf.

NOTE: Samson Oil and Gas (SSN) is a publicly traded company based in Australia. This is not about Samson Resources, a private company, headquartered in Denver, with international offices in Houston. Samson Resources is a driller/operator in the Bakken. SSN owns controls acreage in the Bakken and has working interests in Bakken wells, but to the best of my knowledge, does not actually operate its own rigs in the Bakken. 

NOTE: some of the information below could be construed as a recommendation to invest in Samson Oil and Gas Limited. This is not the point of this posting. I try very hard not to make recommendations and to remain neutral in "all things Bakken." In this particular case, it is even more important that folks understand this. Samson is a very, very small company, headquartered outside the United States, and has a very small footprint in North Dakota. I assume that most investors would consider Samson a speculative play.  On the other hand, it doesn't take many good wells to change the fortune of these small companies, compared to a very good well for EOG.

One of the reasons for posting this: it helps me keep track of the location and the activity in the various oil fields in North Dakota which is one of the prime reasons I started this blog, just to help me keep track of what is going in my home state.

Samson Oil and Gas Limited (SSN)

Samson is a very small cap Australian company. Its market capitalization is about $40 million. KOG is 10 times that at $400 million, and NOG is about double that at $700 million (April, 2010). (Samson does need to update its website regarding its activity in the Bakken; they reference plans for "the remainder of 2007 and 2008," suggesting they last updated that page in late 2007, which speaks volumes about attention to detail; of course, they may be very, very busy just looking for oil.)

I would normally include Samson among "my other producers" but with the recent announcement of a very successful well, the Gene 1-22 well in Williams County, northeast of Williston (and the fact that someone asked if I would post something about it at this site), I thought now would be a good time to add it to the list of Bakken producers.

I don't know much about the background of this company, yet. According to its Yahoo! profile, its interest is in the US (though it is headquartered in Australia) and specifically in Wyoming, North Dakota,  New Mexico, and Texas. Ex-patriots living the good life in the "outback"? Who knows.

The company has been around since 1980, not much longer than KOG (1972). It has accumulated a very small amount of acreage in North Dakota, about 3,600 net acres, most if not all in the North Stockyard oil field in Williams County, which neighbors the northeastern edge of BEXP's "Rough Rider" prospect.

Zavanna is Samson's drilling/completion operator in the "North Stockyard" oil field. The Gene 1-22H well is on my "new wells reporting" as well as my list of  "high initial production wells."

From "dfwtracker" post:

"...Based on it's location the Gene 22-1 well and Samson's adjacent acreage could have been priojected for excellent results, but the 2,936 boe/d from a short horizontal was well above expectations.

Jakobreith posted that the 2,936 boe/d was a new Bakken record for a short lateral and I can confirm it is by far the best results from a Bakken formation short lateral that I have seen.

Samson has six 640 acre spacing units in this area and management has stated with 320 acre spacing they can drill a total of ten Bakken wells. There is also a good possibilty of just as many Three Fork formation wells on this acreage with comparable results.

Samson and Zavanna plan to drill several wells on this acreage this year and the the immediate cash flow from the Gene 22-1 and these other future Bakken wells will be beneficial in funding the acceleration of Samson's drilling activities and production and reserve growth."

Source: Yahoo message boards.

I suppose now that I've put up a separate post for Samson, I will have to do the same for several other small Bakken producers, such as American Energy. Smile.

By the way, these new IP "records" are subject to much discussion. See comments: apparently this was based on an 8-hour flowback. I generally won't get into discussions on "right/wrong" regarding IPs. I just report them and any additional factual information regarding how they were determined.

Madison Group

Updates

April 15, 2019:

• Red Wing Creek, see this post;
• #35030, a DUC, reported as completed this date; see this post;
• #20240, sister well on the pad...Madison, t6/11; cum 401K 2/19;

September 16, 2017: Oasis to sell off non-core ND/MT assets; mostly Madison wells.

August 17, 2017: two interesting Madison wells; both re-entered wells.

August 12, 2017: there are indications that interest in the Madison is about to pick up  --- not with vertical wells, but with horizontal wells. Petro Harvester is the one to watch. 

May 24, 2017: Sedalia reports a nice horizontal Madison well northeast of Minot. 

April 6, 2012: Note: according to the North Dakota Geologic Society, the Lodgepole formation is part of the Madison Group.

The Madison Group is made up of three formations; the Lodgepole, Mission Canyon, and Charles, in ascending order (Fig. 6). These formations are conformable in the basin center, but exhibit complex intertonguing relationships along the basin margins.

However, according to Teegue:

The Lodgepole is not part of the Madison Pool. Teegue states that the Madison Pool is almost always defined as from the base of the Last Salt to the top of the Lodgepole formation.

And that makes sense, what Teegue says. Interestingly, on the sundry form accompanying the Oasis Clark well in Tyrone oil field north of Williston, the pool was originally typed in as "Bakken" only to be crossed out and inked in with Lodgepole.

Teegue goes on:

[I]t [the Oasis Clark well] will either be placed in the current or amended Bakken pool or a newly established Lodgepole pool.

NEWS 

(Only Significant News)

August 22, 2016: a Madison well -- the first one reported in a long time, north of Minot:

• 31365, SI/NC, Statoil, Topaz 20-17 5TFH, Banks, no production data,
• 32377, IA/36, Prairie Hills Oil and Gas, LLC, McCarroll 1H, Grover, a Madison well, Target Horizon: Sherwood;  320-acre spacing; W2 of section 16-162-66; t3/16; cum 2K 6/16;  drilling plan: true vertical depth, 5,021 feet; TD = 9,446 feet; went inactive 8/16; sundry form received June, 2017, suggests work being done on this well;  PA as of 7/16;  

According to dmr.nd:

The Madison Group has been divided into a number of informal, wireline log-defined intervals. In ascending order, they are the Bottineau, Tilston, Landa, Wayne, Glenburn, Mohall, Sherwood, Bluell, Coteau, Dale, Nesson, Midale, Ratcliffe, and Poplar intervals. Hendricks subdivided the Ratcliffe interval into several subintervals, the Berentson, Alexander, Flat Lake, Charles C, Lustre, and Eggebrecht.

Comments:

This is the only well/permit currently held by Prairie Hills Oil and Gas, LLC. This well is API: 33-075-01484. This company has been mentioned before on the blog and linked this oilpatchdispatch story. It looks like the company is a ND limited liability company that filed on June 2, 2015, with a registered agent in Bismarck, ND, and a principal address in Big Lake, MN.

March 30, 2014: update on wildcat wells 35 miles northwest of Minot which will probably all be Madison wells. 

July 29, 2012: notice comments at this posting regarding the Mission Canyon formation being targeted along the Canadian border:

It does appear that Surge believes Madison/Mission Canyon may be a second target from the Spearfish. Even though NDIC names the Spearfish to be Spearfish Madison, the drilling lands in the Spearfish on the 15 or so wells that EOG, Corinthian and Legacy have drilled since horiz drilling started in 2009 in Bottineau County. Most of the older wells in this area of ND targeted the Madison using vert drilling. These are now stripper or abandoned. It will be interesting to find out more about the Mission Canyon hearings as these are right in the middle of what has been for the last 3 years an attempt to establish a Spearfish play. If the objective is Mission Canyon, then these two wells will be slightly deeper as the Spearfish overlays the Madison in this area. It will also will be interesting to find out if horiz Madison is the objective. Sure seems as tho Surge saw something on the seismic in mc and want a closer look.

January 9, 2012: a million-bbl-Madison well!

January 6, 2012: Some interesting Madison wells transferred from Citation to Oxy Little Knife LLC

December 24, 2011: random look at some Madison wells in the Hawkeye oil field

December 23, 2011: random look at some Madison wells in the Little Knife oil field

December 2, 2011: Finally, others starting to talk about the Madison

November 25, 2011: Taking another look at the Bakken

October 26, 2011: Whiting's Madison wells in Big Stick field (Billings County).

January 31, 2011: A Madison well with an IP>1,000 bbls and 37,000 bbls cumulative after only 3.5 months.

ORIGINAL POST

In addition to the Bakken, there are several other formations of interest in North Dakota. Despite all the attention the Bakken is getting, the primary oil-producing interval in the Williston Basin remains the Madison Group.

Through December, 2009, cumulative totals of oil production for the following formations (data from NDIC):

• Bakken: 119,635,155
• Madison: 905,377,939 
• Red River (all): 217,564,177
• Spearfish (all): 53,667,202 

North Dakota will produce about 100 million barrels of oil this year. Even if that entire production was from the Bakken, and it clearly isn't (there are a lot of legacy wells), it would still take several years for the Bakken to surpass the Madison in total oil output.

The Madison Group is divided into three formations in the Williston Basin: the Lodgepole, the Mission Canyon, and the Charles.

Note that KOG has a rig in the Red River-Mission Canyon play in Montana just across the border and west of Williston. 

Background

In a study published in September, 2005, by the PCO2R Parnership (the federal government's Energy and Environmental Research Center [EERC] and the University of North Dakota), the authors noted:

1. The Madison GSU (aquifer) underlies both the Williston and Powder River Basins. It has the potential to be a significant sequestration unit in the PCOR Partnership region.

2. In the Williston Basin, the Madison is given group status and divided into three formations, which in ascending order are the Lodgepole, Mission Canyon, and the Charles. The Lodgepole and Mission Canyon are carbonates and have porosity; the Charles Formation is dominated by [salts] and lacks permeability.

3. The Madison Group is the primary oil-producing interval in the Williston Basin.  Again, this report was published in 2005.

4. In the Powder River Basin, the Madison is not subdivided, and the equivalent stratigraphic unit is called the Madison limestone. 

Key members of the PCO2R partnership that contributed to this report include Julie A. LeFever, North Dakota Geological Survey; Richard D. LeFever, UND, Geology/Geological Engineering; Lynn D. Helms, North Dakota Industrial Commission; as well as Fischer, Smith, Peck, Sorensen, Steadman and Harju of the EERC.

On another note: here are ways investors can play the CCS game.