Painted Woods With an Extensive Update -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

I have just updated the Painted Woods oil field; link here.

The update is important for three reasons:

• The update demonstrates the huge increase in activity since originally reviewed
• One can compare IPs and cumulative production in the same field between BEXP and other producers
• A comment on flaring

When I first posted a review of the Painted Woods there were only about four wells, most on the confidential list. Since then, dozens more, and many of them off the confidential list with six months or more of production. It should be noted, that production was hit hard in January, 2011, due to blizzards and snow drifts. Oil from new wells is trucked out (pipelines are put in later) and snowdrifts in North Dakota can keep trucks off the roads for days at a time.

Most of the Painted Woods wells are BEXP wells, but there are enough other wells by other producers that one can get a feeling for the difference in IPs and cumulative production among various drillers. It is very, very interesting. I think the discussion regarding "inflated" IPs is starting to gel.

And finally, I added a note about flaring at the bottom of the post on the Painted Woods oil field. I think there are reasonable explanations for the flaring issue.