Twenty-Two Wells Completed -- August 4, 2011 -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

For newbies:

The NDIC posts a daily activity report for the North Dakota oil patch every business day (which is free by the way, not even requiring one to sign in) usually about 5:00 p.m. The report is divided into many components. Some days there is very little to report; other days a lot.  (One segment that is almost always empty: DRY holes.)

The NDIC divides two segments that have to do with new wells reporting. One segment is the list of wells that are released from the CONFIDENTIAL list. Regardless of whether the well is completed, producing, or whatever, if the six months is up, the six months is up and the well comes off the CONFIDENTIAL list. In the old days that was more than enough time for a well to be completed, tested, and reported. With the backlog in fracking, etc., often wells released from the CONFIDENTIAL list still report no data, and are generally placed  on DRL (drill) status.

A second segment of the daily activity report is "Producing Wells Completed." These are wells that came off the confidential list earlier (sometime months earlier), have now been completed, given an additional 30 days to complete their reports, and now are reported out by the NDIC.

We can sometimes go several days before we see any wells on the "Producing Wells Completed" list, but most days one will see two or three such wells.

On August 4, while I was traveling, and still catching up, the NDIC's daily activity report was stunning in the number of producing wells completed. It may not have set an all-time record, but it was certainly a recent high: 22 wells were reported as completed.

Some highlights (most of these have been reported out already -- press releases, corporate presentations, etc):

Zavanna reported out four wells; two of them:

• 18064, 1,085, Zavanna, Cougar 1-35H, Williams County
• 19328, 853, Zavanna, Earl 1-13H, Williams County

Enerplus, reported one well:

• 18103, 915, Enerplus, Look Out Ridge 4-31H, Dunn

Zenergy, reported one well:

• 20026, 1,355, Zenergy, Nordeng 24-13H, McKenzie County (this looks like a nice well)

BTA reported two nice wells:

• 18758, 714, BTA, 20711 Paulson 49-1H, Williams County
• 19906, 823, BTA, 20711 Kreidle 3229 1H, Williams County

Petro-Hunt reported one well:

• 20011, 949, Petro-Hunt, Sovig 150-100-22C-15-1H, McKenzie County

So, that gives you some idea. It's exciting for me when I see these long lists. I am hoping to see similar things as the backlog of wells are completed this autumn. 

Of course, BEXP never fails to disappoint. It is unusual to see BEXP on this list; they usually get their wells fracked, completed, and reported within the six months, but here was one that was delayed:

• 19830, 1,835, BEXP, Irwin 15-22 1H, Williams County