Nothing To Do With The Bakken

This has nothing to do with the Bakken but it is an opportunity to remind readers I enjoy following other news around the world.

In this case, Connecticut's state treasurer says the state has one week's worth of cash. I was aware of California, Illinois, and New York in deep fiscal trouble, but I had forgotten about Connecticut.

Back in June of this year, Connecticut, the wealthiest state in the US (based on per capita income) had to borrow $1 billion to cover a cash shortfall; this time it's only half a billion dollars.

45,000 Barrels in Two Months; An IP of 27 -- More To Follow?

This is very, very interesting. I am waiting for more to comment on this one.

This well reported an IP of 27 barrels per day, but it produced almost 45,000 barrels in the first two days of operation. This is an Encore well: Swenson 31-33SWH , and is a short lateral to boot.
If this is not a typographical error, it says volumes about IPs. It is in the Charlson field, and Charlson wells have been good wells, so I don't doubt the production. I am just curious about the IP.

Another "First" for North Dakota; Microseismic Arrays; The Halo Effect Of Fracking

Largest array: North Dakota has the largest buried microseismic array in the world, Geo News, July, 2010.

Other stories, same subject:

World's largest buried seismic array, Williston Basin, Whiting Oil in MicroSeismic:

Headline: MicroSeismic, Inc. Announces Completion of World's Largest Buried Array in Williston Basin for Whiting Oil & Gas Corporation

Story: HOUSTON - March 10, 2010 - MicroSeismic, Inc., a leading geophysical service company providing 3-D passive seismic imaging for energy exploration and production, today announced that it has completed installation of a Buried Array system in the Williston Basin's Sanish Field for Whiting Oil & Gas Corporation, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Whiting Petroleum Corporation.

This expansive Buried Array spans an area of more than 150 square miles in Mountrail County, North Dakota and uses more than 1200 geophone channels. The Buried Array will enable microseismic monitoring, mapping and analysis of the hydraulic fracturing operations for Whiting's Sanish Field development program. It will also permit Whiting to monitor the primary, secondary and tertiary activity, in a variety of reservoir conditions, for their Bakken and Three Forks Formation wells on a long-term basis.

Real-Time Monitoring Is Fracking's Newest Revolution, aiche.org, June 25, 2012.

MicroSeismic completes buried array in Williston Basin for Whiting Oil & Gas; Exploration and Production Magazine, March 10, 2010. 

Hydraulic fracturing and microseismic monitoring: UNDEERD and multiple Bakken operators, December, 2008

A life of Field Monitoring Array for the Sanish Field, North Dakota, wbpc, undated, abstract only;

For thoughts on this array, click here.

Miscellaneous notes posted since the original note:

• January 11, 2011: short press release on the completion of the largest microseismic hydraulic fracture monitoring program conducted in Canada to date. This occurred in the Horn River Basin in northeast British Columbia, Canada, and consisted of real-time monitoring of 143 fracture stages in eight horizontal wells. 

The "microseismic array" story became more interesting when The Daily Mail referenced a larger array. But these may be two different "animals." The Daily Mail may be referencing a "seismic array," whereas the North Dakota story references a microseismic array.

"Frac Hits": from Bloomberg, April 29, 2017

After drilling 27 gas wells in North Louisiana in the first quarter, Range Resources Corp shut in some production to avoid “frac hits,” or damage that can occur to an older shale well located next to a newer one.

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Simultaneous Hydraulic Fracturing Treatments in Adjacent Horizontal Wells

From a very interesting paper, geoconvention, 2009: Real-Time Microseismic Monitoring of Simultaneous Hydraulic Fracturing Treatments in Adjacent Horizontal Wells in the Woodford Shale.

Introduction:

The commercial success of horizontal wells drilled in shale-gas reservoirs depends upon the ability to initiate multiple parallel fractures, and/or the presence of complex networks of natural fractures that are connected by induced hydraulic fractures.

Production modeling of horizontal well completions shows that recovery might be improved if the distance between parallel hydraulic fractures can be reduced.

Simultaneous fracturing of two or more adjacent and parallel horizontal wells has been tested in the Barnett Shale to create hydraulic fracture networks more closely spaced than can be achieved from a single wellbore.

Positive results in comparison to wells completed individually were attributed to increased fracture complexity resulting from the interaction of hydraulic fractures initiated in parallel wells. Pressure response while fracturing and radioactive tracer surveys were the primary evaluation tools used. The two previously mentioned references contained an implicit assumption that rock mechanical properties were more or less constant along the length of the horizontal lateral. Evaluation of fracture stimulation treatments in the Barnett Shale that incorporated advanced open-hole logging measurements such as image logs, and borehole-based microseismic monitoring, showed that fracture geometry can be influenced greatly by changes in rock properties along the length of the lateral.

The implications of such heterogeneity cannot be ignored when transferring technology from the Barnett Shale to other gas-shale reservoirs. In this paper, we present the results of a microseismic monitoring camp aign undertaken as part of a drilling and completion program in the Woodford Shale of south-central Oklahoma that included both single-well and simultaneous fracturing treatments.

Two project areas, designated Eastern and Western were selected for live microseismic monitoring during fracturing operations. The project began with a single-well completion in May, 2007 in the Eastern project area. In April, 2008, a four-well simultaneous fracturing treatment was performed in the Western project area. The Eastern project area was finished in June, 2008 and included re-stimulation of the first well completed in May, 2007, a two-well simultaneous fracturing treatment, and the completion of a single well. All treatments were monitored with borehole-based microseismic measurement.

Real-time processing and display of microseismic event locations was provided to the engineering team responsible for the fracture stimulation treatments at the fracturing location.

Conclusion:

Evaluation of the production histories of wells discussed in this paper appears to show that simultaneous fracturing treatments do not necessarily increase well productivity when compared to conventional completions.

Also, where new wells have been drilled in proximity to existing wells there is potential for damage to the completed well by fluids introduced during the stimulation of the new well(s).

The benefits of simultaneous fracturing are most apparent when 3 or more wells are stimulated simultaneously.

In the western project area, the interior wells produce more gas when normalized for lateral length compared to the exterior wells. In the eastern project area, the A4 well, which was completed without simultaneous fracturing, has the highest sustained gas rate and cumulative production. The objective of using microseismic data was to assess the four-dimensional development of the induced fracture systems both in space and time.

Using real-time microseismic monitoring allows adjustments to the pumping schedule while the treatment s take place (i) to improve the effectively stimulated reservoir volume, (ii) to interpret unusual pressure responses, and (iii) to identify contact with potential geohazards.

Microseismic monitoring of the individual-well completions and simultaneous fracturing projects showed that substantive changes in fracture network geometry occurred along the laterals. The change in fracture geometry appears to be in response to structural complexity combined with lithological effects. An important implication of this study is that production improvements or cost savings might be achieved through better integration of surface seismic data, open-hole logs, directional drilling measurements, and borehole-based microseismic monitoring.

Completion engineers can take full advantage of the information available when designing stimulation treatments, and make changes to those treatments during pumping operations when needed. The benefits of this approach have been proven in many shale-gas reservoirs around the world.

Too Much To Post -- This One for Investors

There is, again, way too much to post. I am traveling around western North Dakota, and sneaking bits of time at the local library or on my iPad at McDonald's to update my blog. But it's almost impossible to post all I want.

So, some of this will seem random (it is), but folks who know that I remain bullish on the oil industry will understand (or, at least I hope they will) what I am posting.

From a recent Wall Street Journal investing transcript:

Globally decline rates [of oil production] are in excess of 6% per year, which means the world has to bring online roughly 5 million barrels a day of new production every year simply to keep supply flat. In addition, the recent incident in the Gulf of Mexico is another example of the existing the supply challenges and more evidence that the era of cheap, easy to access oil is truly over.On a specific note, one of the interesting dynamics at play today is that the deepwater Gulf of Mexico represents a very important part of US domestic production.

So, with oil prices down yet again today, this just represents another buying opportunity. I assume one could invest small amounts in the Bakken periodically as the price of oil drops. We will only know the bottom when the time has passed.

Having said that, the short term outlook for oil could be rocky. I do not hold DNR.

Micro-Wells and. Micro-Brews

Someone wrote to tell me Cirque named their wells after micro-brews.

Three of these wells have just been reported. Based on their IPs (which I'm told no longer mean anything), these Cirque wells may be micro-wells.

18476, 101, Cirque, Feast of Fools 12-16H
18389, 278, Cirque, True Blonde 16-15H
18299, 63, Cirque, Red Lady 36-4H

Another First for North Dakota?

Not yet, but someday North Dakota might claim another first.

Ninety (90) percent of potash used in America comes from mines in western Canada.

It turns out that North Dakota may have 50 billion tons of potash in the same area as the current oil boom, the northwestern corner of the state. These deposits are less than 150 miles south of the potash mines in Canada.

Yesterday, August 18, 2010, the Williston Herald reported that a Denver-based company was granted a permit to mine potash in North Dakota. This is the first potash permit granted in more than 30 years. This story was in the print edition of the Herald; I couldn't find an on-line source to link.

Here's an old February, 2009, press release, and the website.

Dakota Salts LLC has also received a grant to study whether it is feasible to store compressed air for electricity-generating wind farms once the potash is removed.

The company will also explore the possibility of storing carbon dioxide in these mines.

It's a long way off, but if 90 percent of potash used in the US comes from Canada, there can't be many other states mining potash.

Wouldn't it be interesting if North Dakota could add another first to its list of firsts?