Thursday, November 18, 2010

Fourteen (14) New Permits Today -- North Dakota, USA

Operators: Zenergy (3), Whiting (3), EOG (2), Fidelity (2), Oxy, CLR, XTO, and Hunt.

Fields: Banks, Gaylord, Stanley, Sanish, Dimond, Mandaree, Reunion Bay, Heart Butte, Van Hook, and two wildcats.

Whiting has two in its "cash cow" field, the Sanish, and one in Stark County (again).

The two EOG wells are in the same section: SESE 11-151N-91W; and, SWNE 11-151N-91W.

Spearfish Wells

18898, 88, EOG, Boundary 1-11H, Wildcat, Spearfish formation
18997, 30, EOG, Boundary 4-27H, Wildcat, Spearfish formation

For those who have forgotten, these are the inexpensive, shallow, Spearfish formation wells along the North Dakota - Canada border. EOG has lots of experience and good results north of the border and earlier this year started targeting the Spearfish formation just south of the North Dakota - Canada border.

Click here to see one of the earlier postings regarding the Spearfish formation, EOG, and the Scandia series of wells.  The Scandia wells are all inside the Souris oil field; this Boundary well is just outside the south border of that field, so although it's a wildcat, for all intents and purposes it's in the Souris.

Updates

February 2, 2010: According to Legacy Oil and Gas presentation of January, 2011, EOG has drilled ten (10) Spearfish wells in this area.

December 15, 2010: 19099, XX, EOG, Boundary 11-20H, Roth field, Spearfish formation. I am not aware that the IP has been reported, but it is flowing at about 500 bbls/month for the first three months of production runs, August - October, 2010. 

Three Nice Wells Reported Out Today -- All Bakken Wells

After the last few days of  not many "good" wells, this was a welcome relief, to see the results of the three wells reported below.

In the last month or so, EOG has had some wells with smaller IPs than expected in their core Bakken areas. The EOG wells below are more like it.

For newbies, the Van Hook field is west of the Parshall, much of it inside the reservation, and a very good field. Of course, the Parshall is the prolific field "owned" by EOG.

The Painted Woods field is a relatively new field northwest of Williston that has really opened up a new area in that part of the Bakken. Although many operators are in this field (EOG, Oasis, Slawson, etc.), I've always thought of the Painted Woods as a "BEXP field."
When looking at these IPs, it is best to compare IPs within the history of the various producers, not compare operator to operator.  In other words, one expects BEXP to report IPs in the Painted Woods field to be 2,000 bbls. Anything less is a "disappointment."

For EOG, in the Van Hook, a 2,200 IP is pretty special, not unusual, but very nice to see.

Oh, and for newbies, the "reservation" referred to above, is the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. This was in the news earlier this week when Williams Cos bought 85,000 net acres inside the reservation. The development of the reservation was delayed about two years compared to other parts of the Bakken due to federal bureaucratic delays.

OKAY: Here It Is -- A New Record -- 160 -- North Dakota, USA

The NDIC website now (November 18, 2010; a.m.) shows 160 active rigs in North Dakota. A new record.

I am truly impressed.

Along with the 160 rigs, we are seeing record number of permits (per the Director's Cut). A year ago, it seemed I was transcribing 4 - 8 new permits every day; perhaps averaging about 5 new permits/day. Now, I am surprised if the list is less than 10 new permits every day, and generally it's been 13 - 15.

Whiting seems, at the moment, to being the most common name I see on the new permits list: Whiting has their "cash cow" in the Sanish, and is now opening up the Lewis and Clark prospect it seems. By the way, Whiting did show an increase by one; Whiting now has 15 rigs in North Dakota.

CLR must have a huge backlog of permits to work through; I don't see it's name come up quite as often, despite having clearly the most active rigs in North Dakota.

Anyway, rambling, sorry. We have a new record: 160. Where will we get all the fracking crews? (Rhetorical question; no need to respond.)

Miscellaneous Morning News From the Bakken -- North Dakota, USA

Williston population / housing study numbers coming in: population tops 15,000.

Fallout from recent media coverage: increasing call for regulating fracking.

Fretting over fracking: Grand Forks Herald. (Same story as the one above; two different newspapers.)

The new formation that could rival the Bakken covers almost all of western and southwestern North Dakota. The Tyler formation extends far enough east to include the Bismarck area. Location of Tyler Formation.