Random Post -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Experienced Williston Oil Basin oilmen continue to remark that what they are seeing now -- in terms of the boom -- is something they've never seen before. They continue to say that even now, when the boom is becoming somewhat like "groundhog day."

This may be another reason the operators are so excited about the Bakken: look at past experience of the legacy wells. Every once in awhile I come across an active legacy well, such as an old Madison, that is still producing oil, and after 20 - 30 years, has produced a cumulative of 300,000 total barrels. I then go to the NDIC GIS map server to find out where it is located, and then check out the legacy wells in the immediate area. For every outstanding legacy well I come across, I find any number of old wells in the immediate area that were a) dry; b) not economical; or, c) economical, but not all that great. I would assume someone knows the average EUR of legacy wells, but if an exciting Madison well is 300,000 bbls, it won't bring up the average a whole lot when there are one or two dry Madison wells to offset it.

But in the Bakken, there is by comparison, "no" dry holes. And even the poorest Bakken wells  will hit 300,000 bbls over the lifetime of the wells. Some say the average EUR of a Bakken well will be 603,000 bbls.  There have got to be a few Bakken clunkers to bring down the average. With that in mind, the good Bakken wells are going to be very, very good.

I wonder if the average EUR of a Madison, taking into account the dry wells, is significantly under 100,000 bbls. I don't know. I'm sure the data is out there.

On top of that, there are going to be significantly more Bakken wells than ever drilled before in North Dakota.