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Saturday, June 5, 2010

A Decade of Oil Production in North Dakota

The numbers really are impressive. North Dakota's monthly oil production is a drop in the bucket compared to what the rest of the world produces, and how much oil is consumed by the US, even on a daily basis, but for North Dakota, it really has to be exciting. For those who have followed "the Bakken" for the past several years, it's easy to become bored with the current phase that we are in. If you are one of those seasoned Bakken observers who gets bored not seeing more excitement, take a look at the statistics at the NDIC webpage to see how far we have come.

The most recent month for which figures are available is March, 2010, so I will use March of the past ten years to demonstrate how far North Dakota has come in one decade:

This is the monthly oil production for the month of March in the designated year:

March, 1999: 2,808,388
March, 2000: 2,818,101
March, 2001: 2,737,754
March, 2002: 2,627,861
March, 2003: 2,531,130
March, 2004: 2,545,806
March, 2005: 2,957,390
March, 2006: 3,280,005
March, 2007: 3,661,186
March, 2008: 4,458,939
March, 2009: 6,054,826
March, 2010: 8,599,616

Highlights of the June Hearing Dockets Before the NDIC

Here are the highlights, in no particular order, of the hearing dockets before the NDIC in June:

1. Case no. 12695: Whiting will request 15 1280-acre units in the Sanish (154-92/154-91 area) for purpose of drilling between existing 1280-acre units.

2. Case no. 12722 - 12724: American Energy will request to extend the Ray field; place 4 wells in Bear Creek.

3. Hess has several Orion Belts on its radar scope: 12729; 12736.

4. There is a new player I had not seen before: Ursa Resources.

5. 12316:  CLR with another Eco-Pad request; 2 pads in two adjoining 1280-acre units.

6. 12758 - 12539: EOG looking at 98 new wells -- Clearwater, Kittleson Slough, Van Hook, Clarks Creek; wildcat in McKenzie County.

7. 12775 - 12779: Newfield remains active.

8. 12782: Hunt looking for 12 1280-acre units; 1 well each.

9. 12795 - 12799: XTO remains active.

10. 12814 - 12842: Slawson -- 29 wells ready to be spudded; mostly in Big Bend and Van Hook.

11. 12800 - 12802: BEXP remains fairly active.

Dressler 13-1H

Somewhere on this site (I can't locate it now) I reported that the Dressler 13-1H was dry; someone called me on that suggesting I was mistaken. I linked a site that suggested the well was dry, but now, there is new data to suggest I am wrong.

On the NDIC hearing docket for June 24, Tracker is requesting "temporary spacing to develop an oil and/or gas pool discovered by #13-1H Dressler, NENW 13-142-92, Dunn County." Case No. 10792 (cont'd).

I have to agree; it would be unlikely to request such spacing and state oil/gas discovered if the well was dry. Hmmm. My apologies if I reported wrong.

Perhaps more to follow.