The Bakken play in the Williston basin could become the world's largest discovery in the last 30 - 40 years.This was the lead story in Rigzone today, February 17, 2011, on a day when the number of rigs actively drilling in North Dakota blew through two records in quick succession.
The data points were those of a Continental Resources senior manager:
- CLR's estimates: 24 billion recoverable bbls in the Bakken; represents five times the US Geological Survey's 2008 estimate
- The new estimate compares with the 151 million bbls the survey put forth as recently as the mid-90's
- Close to 2 billion bbls of the 24 billion will come from the underlying Three Forks
- CLR helped proved that the Three Forks was a separate reservoir from the Bakken
- The middle Bakken is more porous and permeable than both the upper and lower Bakken
- Production exceeds 400,00 bopd including Montana and North Dakota
- Recovery of the oil will take years
- The industry has completed 2,750 horizontal wells since 2000
- Currently: 165 rigs that will drill 1,800 more wells in 2011
- Production could reach 1 million bopd in a few years
- The Bakken is continuous under nearly 15,000 square miles
- Most operators are now drilling 9,500 foot laterals with 18 - 30 frac stages/well
- Optimum number of frac stages is not known, but fracking appears to reach a point of diminishing returns between 18 and 24 frac stages