Whiting's Lewis and Clark Prospect -- Three Forks, North Dakota, USA

On October 31, 2010, I posted a blog about a "flurry of activity" in the Belfield, North Dakota, area.

That flurry of activity started with the first and only set of traffic lights in the city of Belfield. When traffic lights cost a million dollars to install, small towns don't take these installations lightly.

Today, that "flurry of activity" and that first set of traffic lights has a name: the Lewis and Clark prospect. WLL's most recent corporate presentation sheds light on this prospect:

• Its objective is the Three Forks formation
• It consists of 360K gross/235K net acres; 164 1280-acre units
• 12 wells in 2010; 46 in 2011
• $280 million CAPEX in 2011

From the 4Q10, earnings call:

• Based on Whiting’s evaluations, we believe there has been partial pressure depletion from Upper Bakken Shale wells drilled in this area in the 1980s and 1990s. We believe that approximately 2% of our acreage at Lewis & Clark could potentially be affected.
• Whiting completed the Teddy 44-13H with an initial production rate of 381 BOE per day from the Three Forks. We believe that this well frac’d into a water-bearing zone. The company will modify its frac design for future wells drilled in this area.
• Also of note, our Federal 32-4H discovery well produced a total of 66,300 BOE during its first six months of production, which ended May 25, 2010. Although this is a Three Forks well, it would rank the well among the top 15% of all Bakken wells drilled in North Dakota in terms of first six months total production based on information from the North Dakota Industrial Commission.
• Whiting recently broke ground for the construction of a gas processing plant at Lewis & Clark. The Belfield Gas Plant, located near Belfield, North Dakota, will have an initial inlet capacity of 30 MMcf of gas per day and is expected to be completed in November 2011. To reduce the volume of gas being flared in the Lewis & Clark area, we are in the process of installing equipment to compress the natural gas into vessels that can be trucked to the nearest gas plant. Our Belfield plant will have the capability to accept trucked gas. 

For newbies: the Williston Basin extends into South Dakota, but the Bakken Pool only extends as far south as southwestern North Dakota. The Bakken Pool includes the Bakken formation and the Three Forks formation. I don't know who called it first, but someone (either WLL or CLR; I think it was WLL) noted that there was a "pinchout" of the Three Forks in southwestern North Dakota, near Belfield. The "pinchout'" is an area where the Three Forks formation has "pinched out" farther south than the Bakken, and that's where WLL is now concentrating with the Lewis and Clark prospect.

In addition, just across a geologic line, southwest to the Lewis and Clark prospect, is Whiting's "Big Island" prospect. This is a lot smaller in terms of net acres for WLL. Right now, WLL's corporate presentation is vague on the "Big Island." WLL says there are "multiple objectives" for the "Big Island; WLL will drill just one well in this prospect in 2011, with a CAPEX of $4 million. A horizontal well costs $8 million, so a $4 million CAPEX on one well suggests a vertical. Maybe they are targeting the Lodgepole.