Trivia Hour -- NDIC Hearing Dockets -- March, 2011: How Much Can One Find in the March Dockets? -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

NDIC has posted the March, 2011, hearing dockets, and I have posted a brief summary of same.

See the trivia one can derive from the hearings:

1. It's not just about the Bakken any more! Look at this:  "proper spacing for the Lodgepole."

• 14304: MRO, proper spacing for Murphy Creek-Lodgepole, Dunn County
• See comments below [this item was added to original post. Thank you to those who missed my oversight on this one.]

2. We are starting to see as many as four wells on 640-acre spacing units

• 14428: Enerplus, complete not more than 2 wells on a 320-acre unit, and not more than 4 wells on a 640-acre unit in Mandaree-Bakken, Dunn, McKenzie (one of several examples)

3. Slawson is going to try something we don't see often: going into a producing horizontal well, but opening the vertical portion to another formation

• Case 14386: Slawson wants to go back into Ambush 1-31-30H and open a portion of the vertical section of the well to the Lodgepole Formation in Williams County

4. Williams County is going to get really, really busy

• 14418: EOG, complete not more than 2 wells in each 1280-acre unit; 15 units, 30 wells, Painted Woods-Bakken, Williams
• 14419: EOG, complete not more than 2 wells in a 1280-acre unit, Rosebud, Williams
• 14421: EOG, complete not more than 2 wells on each 1280-acre unit; 3 units, 6 wells total, Round Prairie-Bakken, Williams

5. Larger units

• 14085, cont'd: Zenergy, extend Van Hook-Bakken, 1 3840-acre unit, 9 wells, eliminate the 1220 setback rule
• 14321: Hess, to establish a 2560-acre unit in Manitou or Alkali Creek-Bakken, Mountrail 

6.  For all those naysayers who said EOG was leaving Bottineau and the Spearfish -- not so fast

• 13429, cont'd: temporary spacing for Boundary 4-27H, Bottineau (Spearfish)

7. Wildcats farther east, all the way into Ward County

• 14371: Behm, complete a vertical well, Halden 11-8, Ward, 8-156-87; this is a vertical well; what formation is Behm targeting?

8. Many great fields getting bigger; just a couple examples

• 14363: Enerplus, to establish 7 1280-acre units in Heart Butte-Bakken, 4 wells each, Dunn
• 14354: Enerplus, to establish 4 1280-acre units in South Fork-Bakken, 4 wells each, Dunn

9. New fields? One of many examples:

• 14309: Cornerstone, establish 14 640-acre units in Burke County

10.  WLL is "putting the pedal to the metal in the Sanish":

• 14327: WLL, to establish 2 additional wells to be drilled on 10 spacing units in the Sanish-Bakken pool, Mountrail County, 20 wells in all

11.  It looks like ALL the drillers are getting tired of production restrictions due to flaring and lack of infrastructure. They've thrown in the towel and are asking for relief in the most prolific (and "oldest" Bakken field in North Dakota, the Parshall. After the 4Q10 earnings reports, one understands why these companies want restrictions lifted; the flaring restrictions and North Dakota winter depressed production significantly

• 14434: EOG, Slawson, Hunt, BEXP, Sinclair, to allow flaring of gas unrestricted in Parshall-Bakken, Mountrail  

11. Everyone is getting into  the act. In the old days, it was only WLL that put 6 - 8 wells on a 1280-acre unit; now everyone is doing it; one of many examples:

• 14075, cont'd: Newfield, create 1 1280-acre unit, Williams, 5 wells including the existing well

I'm curious if anyone else can see any trends, innovations, or peculiarities in the NDIC March hearing dockets? Or something I missed or misinterpreted?