Heel-to-Toe and Toe-to-Heel Parallel Horizontals -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Long before they started talking about seven and eight long horizontals in a spacing unit in the Bakken, I pointed out that fracking seemed to be effective only about five hundred feet radially (1,000 feet diametrically) and predicted that we would eventually see horizontals paralleling each other about 1,000 feet apart. That is now happening on a regular basis; my hunch is that the separation will narrow.

I have also opined that the farther one gets from the vertical, the less effective the production (for any number of reasons), and I predicted that we would eventually see toe-to-heel horizontals paralleling heel-to-toe horizontals. I now have a great example (and there are others).

At the NDIC GIS map server, go to section15/22 T154N-R91W. Currently there are eight wells in these two sections. The horizontals from these eight wells do not all drain sections 15/22.

The wells:

• 17080, 2,096, Whiting, Niemi 44-22H, t10/09; cum 459K 12/16;
• 18507,1,946, Whiting, Lahti 24-22H, t6/10; cum 516K 12/16;
• 19502, 2,720, Whiting, Niemitalo 31-15XH, t2/11; cum 406K 12/16;
• 20415, 362, Whiting, Laukala 34-22TFH, t9/11; cum 133K 12/16;
• 21273, 273, Whiting, Lahti 41-15TFX, t12/11; cum 123K 12/16;
• 21348, 312, Whiting, Lahti 31-15TFX, t12/11; cum 151K 12/16;
• 21438, 370, Whiting, Lahti 14-22TFH, t11/11; cum 172K 12/16;
• 21546, 537, Whiting, Lahti 12-22TFH, t3/12; cum 167K 12/16;

The following two horizontals parallel each other, one toe-to-heel; other heel-to-toe

• 17080, 2,096, Whiting, Niemi 44-22H, t10/09; cum 459K 12/16;
• 21273, 251, Whiting, Lahti 41-15TFX, t12/11;  cum 123I 12/16;

Granted, one is in the Three Forks, and one is in the Middle Bakken.

As noted above, there are eight (8) wells in these two sections; I could easily see another eight wells in these two sections (again, the horizontals would drain neighboring sections in some cases). But to the surface owner, one would see as many as 16 wells in these two sections.