Eight (8) New Permits -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Operators: Petro Harvester (3), Whiting, CLR, BR, OXY, Helis.

Fields: Renville, Sanish, Sand Creek, Alkali Creek, Dimond, Grail.

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Of course the Dimond oil field permit belongs to OXY.

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The Sanish permit, of course, belongs to Whiting.

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The Grail field permit belongs to Helis. Back on March 3, 2011, this was reported:

• 17722, 2,068, Helis, Henderson Federal 4-26/35H, Grail, Bakken; TFS, 35K in 41 days; ~ 24-stage frac

Grail oil field is a 30-section oil field just west of the reservation; it currently has two rigs on site
But this is the "biggie" in Grail, section 17-149-95:

• 18448, 2,429, Helis, Andrecovich 5-17/16H, 24-stage frac; TFS, tested, 9/10; 129K in 4.5 months; 20K/month

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The three Renville permits belong to Petro Harvester. In today's daily activity report, Petro Harvester is also acquiring 26 (+/-) wells from Sagebrush, all in Bottineau County.

I don't know much about Petro Harvester yet, but here are a few data points:

• The CEO: Gareth Roberts, the former co-chairman and CEO of Denbury Resources, the firm he founded in 1990. Mr. Roberts has more than 30 years of experience in the exploration and developmen
  Publish Post
  t of oil and natural gas properties with Texaco, Inc., Murphy Oil Corporation and Coho Resources, Inc.
• COO: Jim Sinclair. Mr Sinclair served as Vice President of Exploration and Geosciences at Denbury Resources.
• Their operations are located in two regions: along the Gulf Coast (where they have most of their experience) and Williston Basin.

This is from their website regarding their operations in Williston Basin:

In January 2011, Petro Harvester acquired a package of producing properties in the Williston Basin. The assets include production and acreage in over 20 fields with most of the current value in four concentrated areas where we have high working interests and operational controls. The acquisition includes interest in 145 wells that produce from depths of 3,000 feet to 6,000 feet. Current production is approximately 2,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Identified opportunities include infill drilling, new water flood and enhancement of existing floods, and multilateral drilling. Additional upside potential includes deeper tests, enhanced fracturing techniques, and field extension through 3-D seismic.

The Sagebrush acquisition appears to be all Madison wells in Renville County.