Medicine Pole Hills Oil Field -- North Dakota, USA

Every so often CLR gets another permit for the Medicine Pole Hills oil field, in the far southwest corner of the state.

Right now, in that field, and in the entire southwest part of the state, there is a lone rig on site:

• 19717, ROS, CLR, Wallman 42-8H

In addition, CLR has two sites on confidential status in the immediate area:

• 19872, C, CLR, MPHU 43-9H
• 19716, C, CLR, Della 31-17SH

So, what's the history of this field. Here are some wells in the immediate area (file number, operator, date spudded, formation, and total oil to date:

• 5530, CLR, 2006, West Red River, 386K
• 14971, CLR, 2000, West Red River, 320K
• 5456, CLR, 1974, West Red River, 610K
• 13867, CLR, 1996/2010, West Red River, 105K
• 7675, CLR, 1980, West Red River, 167K
• 16064, CLR, 2010, West Red River, 11K

Again, anything over 100K is nice to see.

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Now let's look a little bit deeper:

13867: this CLR well has two spud dates (1996 and 2010. In 2010, CLR re-entered the well and put in a horizontal into the Red River "B" formation. The IP was 123, and the production was running 2,000 bbls/month; there is no mention of fracking). Here are the production numbers for this well:

• For the first few months after spudding, 1,000 bbls/month
• Then for several months, 800 bbls/month
• Before leveling off at 600 bbls/months for years (with one notable exception: 1,800 bbls 2/05)
• Then August, 2010: no production; that's when CLR was re-entering the well

Here are the production numbers since August 2010, after the new lateral was drilled:

• September, 2010: 2,225
• October, 2010: 3,712
  November, 2010: 3,281
• December, 2010: 2,524
• January, 2011: 3,281
• February, 2011: 3,712

Comment: for me, this is huge. First thing I noticed: CLR moved this well from 800 bbls/month to 3,000 bbls/month in 2010. Second thing I noticed: not the decline in production that we see in the Bakken.

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5456 is a vertical well into the Red River, and spaced at 320 acres. It is still producing at about 800 bbls/month and seems fairly stable.