There Are "No" Dry Holes in the Bakken -- CLR Was Able To Find One -- North Dakota, USA

One of the big surprises today was a dry hole reported by Continental Resources. A dry hole in the Bakken is a headline story. In this case it was:

• 19003, DRY, CLR, Haag 1-21H, Wildcat, Bakken

This well was drilled in the middle of a 9-section oil field, called the Blacktail oil field. Even though the well was drilled in a designated field, it was considered a "wildcat" because there were no producing wells in the immediate area. Interestingly enough, there are six other dry holes in this tiny field, but all of them were drilled years ago, and have nothing to do with "modern" history regarding the North Dakota oil industry, based on the file numbers listed on the GIS map server. 

The location of the Blacktail oil field is interesting and may be the reason CLR was curious to see if it would be productive. The field sits fairly far south in the Bakken, near where the Bakken thins out and the Three Forks "pinches out." It is located pretty much midway between two very historically active areas. To the west there is the Bicentennial oil field where Whiting is establishing a Three Forks presence. To the immediate east are a number of very good Bakken fields: Little Knife, Murphy Creek, Cabernet, and Fayette, just to name a few. These fields appear to have a good mixture of Bakken formation and Three Forks formation wells.

If I understand the survey data as provided at the NDIC site, the Haag 1-21H was drilled to a vertical depth of 10,658 feet, then brought back up a bit, and the lateral went horizontal at 10,626 feet. The last reading was 11,139.63 feet. A short lateral normally extends 4,000 feet or so, and a long lateral twice that distance. If I am reading the data correctly, the horizontal only went 513 feet; the drilling was stopped well before a normal completion, and certainly not fracked.

It's possible someone will provide further details, but right now that's all I've been able to gather. And as a layperson, I could be well off the mark. [Update: The link above has the definitive answer.]