Deepest Well Drilled in North Dakota

Updates

February 1, 2016: see comment from reader about another deep well, perhaps the deepest reported:

In 1991 I was a well logger and we went 16,300ft. The bit broke off and we fished for nearly a week, recovered ~2 cones before tripping back in and setting on the third cone going nowhere fast. That's the bottom of the Bakken. Red sandstone if I remember correctly.

May 11, 2013: There are two depths of interest in drilling a Bakken horizontal well: a) the true vertical depth; and, b) the total depth which includes the vertical depth + the length of the horizontal. It gets a little confusing, therefore, when talking about the "deepest" wells in North Dakota. From the roughneck's perspective, it doesn't matter if it's vertical or horizontal, it's a lot of pipe.

That being said, here are some deep wells in the Bakken:

• 23532, 527, CLR, Louisville 2-9H, Last Chance, t2/13; cum 256K 9/19; total depth: 26,555 feet; NWSW 10-153-100, runs east-to-west, sections 9/8/7-153-100 (it is sited just inside section 10); it runs under the river. Section 8 is entirely under the river. 44 stages; 3.65 million lbs, sand and ceramic.

EOG also has some super long laterals.

• 22484, 2,946, EOG, Hawkeye 102-2501H, Clarks Creek, t1/13; cum 600K 9/19;
• 22485, 1,926, EOG, Hawkeye 102-2501H, Clarks Creek, t1/13; cum 695K 9/19;
• 22486, 2,421, EOG, Hawkeye 102-2501H, Clarks Creek, total depth 25,101 feet; t9/12; cum 781K 4/19; off line 4/19; remains off line 9/19;
  
• 22487, 67 (no typo), EOG, Hawkeye 102-2501H, Clarks Creek total depth, 24, 740 feet, t12/13; cum 850K 9/19;

Updates

The Redwing well noted below:

• 20753, 231, Iron Oil Operating, LLC/Hunt, Redwing 1-3-10H 1, Bear Butte t11/11; cum 89K 9/19; the Middle Bakken was encountered at 11,215 MD, or 11,017 TVD.   

Original Post

 

Greg alerted me to this story (link is broken); it is quite fascinating.

There is quite a bit of trivia in that one story. I think folks might get a kick out of reading it.

The story references the Red Wing Creek field which I have talked about before, and in itself, is a very interesting story.

Dallas-based Hunt Oil (Hunt) is planning to drill a horizontal Bakken test some 10 miles southeast of Alexander and 13 miles southwest of Watford City in McKenzie County, North Dakota.

The company has staked a location for the Redwing #1-3-10H 1 (#20753), ne-nw 3-148n-101w. This wildcat will be drilled on a 1,280-acre standup spacing unit and will bottom somewhere in the southern portion of section 10-148n-101w. Permit/file number 20753.

This new location by Hunt is located roughly 4 miles southwest of a horizontal Bakken discovery drilled earlier this year by Tracker Resources (Tracker) at the Gudmunsen #27-1H, ne-ne 27-149n-100w. This oil strike was given an IPF of 1,006 bopd, 1.6 mmcfgpd and 1,106 bwpd from the Bakken interval at 11,428’–20,370’. The discovery well is operated by Hess Corp. (Hess) following its purchase of Tracker for $1.05 billion. Hess also plans to drill three more Bakken ventures near this strike: the Helga Stenseth #29-1H, ne-ne 29-149n-100w; the Edwin Stenseth #28-1H, se-sw 21-149n-100w; and the McGregor #26-1H, se-sw 23-149n-100w. No activity has been reported at any of these Hess locations.

The article goes on to talk about the deepest wells drilled in North Dakota, which was the original reason Greg sent me the link. 

No real reason for posting this except for some light reading on a Tuesday morning, when the price of oil is up about a dollar despite recent announcement that countries around the world will be releasing oil from their strategic petroleum reserves.

More on these deep wells and other deep wells:

• W.H Hunt Estate, Larson 1, 10-148N-101W, now operated by WISCO (warms the cockles of my heart, but that's another story); this was a wildcat, discovery well for Bear Butte Field, a now-abandoned Birdbear and Duperow oil pool. Of interest, this well is the 14th deepest ever drilled in the state of North Dakota, the deepest being 15,380'.