2836: Almost 2 Million Barrels of Oil Since 1961 -- Still Producing; A Madison Well

Elsewhere, "AmericanOilND" asked for past six months production for well #2836. This is the production. See below table for background.

MADISON	7-2011	31	372	364	4841	0	0	0
MADISON	6-2011	30	258	282	5574	177	177	0
MADISON	5-2011	25	199	154	4422	643	643	0
MADISON	4-2011	24	271	267	3591	650	650	0
MADISON	3-2011	23	201	186	3811	549	549	0
MADISON	2-2011	26	139	149	4038	471	471	0
MADISON	1-2011	31	186	223	4229	645	645	0
MADISON	12-2010	31	358	362	4939	735	735	0
MADISON	11-2010	30	348	330	400	577	577	0
MADISON	10-2010	31	227	212	4996	595	595	0

This is another good example of why oil companies are excited about the Bakken, and why I remain inappropriately exuberant about the oil industry in western North Dakota.

File # 2836 is a Madison well:
NDIC File No: 2836     API No: 33-053-00479-00-00     CTB No: 401995
Well Type: OG     Well Status: A     Status Date: 3/16/1961     Wellbore type: Vertical
Location: SWSE 23-152-96     Footages: 510 FSL 1980 FEL     Latitude: 47.964485     Longitude: -102.9274
Current Operator: PETRO-HUNT, L.L.C.
Current Well Name: CCMU 04
Elevation(s): 2421 KB     Total Depth: 9306     Field: CLEAR CREEK
Spud Date(s):  2/6/1961
Casing String(s): 9.625" 622'   5.5" 9243'  
Completion Data
   Pool: MADISON     Perfs: 9243-9306     Comp: 3/16/1961     Status: AL     Date: 3/16/1961     Spacing: U
Cumulative Production Data
   Pool: MADISON     Cum Oil: 1949817     Cum MCF Gas: 1845365     Cum Water: 1397987
Production Test Data
   IP Test Date: 3/16/1961     Pool: MADISON     IP Oil: 463     IP MCF: 751     IP Water: 0

For newbies, how to read the above:

The pool: a Madison well. The Madison is one of the legacy formations in North Dakota. It is one of the formations that has been reliably producing since oil was discovered in 1961.

Spud date: they started drilling 2/6/1961 

Oil field: the Williston Basin is made up of hundreds of administratively apportioned oil fields; the Clear Creek field is one of them.

Note the cumulative water: 1.4 million bbls. There is generally not a lot of water associated with a Madison well, so this suggests that they are using water injection: pushing large amounts of water into the well to force the oil out; the water will come back up with the oil and have to be trucked away for disposal.

Natural gas: this well has also produced about 1.8 million thousand cubic feet of gas.  The "M" in "MCF" stands for "thousand). A "thousand million" is a billion, so in this case it has produced about 1.8 billion cubic feet of gas. The conversion rate for "barrels of oil equivalent" for natural gas is about 6,000. Dividing 1.8 billion by 6,000, one gets: 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent, a not inconsequential amount if natural gas brought a decent price, which it doesn't.

Status: "AL" means "artificial lift" -- a pump.

Two million bbls of oil and this well is still pumping. It has met the criteria for a stripper well, and if granted that status, is granted a significant tax break. State taxes are essentially cut in half when a well is deemed a "stripper" well. 

And on top of all this, Clear Creek is a great Bakken field, also.