Madison Well -- Am I Missing Something? -- Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

First of all, a big "thank you" to all my readers. Visitors are coming to the site at a record pace; I'm not sure why.

Tonight I noted that someone was googling a Whiting well  -- so I looked it up, and in passing came across a very interesting report. I follow the North Dakota oil industry pretty closely and if I miss something, a reader will send me an "alert." So, I'm not sure how I missed this, or if, indeed, I'm missing something.

I've been looking at it for the last half hour -- I can't figure it out. I must be missing something. But I don't know what I'm missing, so I will count on my readers to help me out.

Yes, I know all about the Madison formation, and I know that there were a lot of great Madison wells back in the 1980's, but with all the excitement on the Bakken, we don't think about the Madison any more.

Unless you are Whiting.

• 18625, 368, Whiting, BSMU 3604, Big Stick, Madison; spudded 7/4/10; tested 8/27/10; cumulative as of August 2011: 110,541.

This is not an "old" well. It was drilled in the current boom. It was drilled last year, and it has already passed the 110,000 mark at the one-year anniversary.  A Bakken well is a good well to reach 100,000 in a year. A Madison well might reach 100,000 in 20 years, although there were some great Madison wells and still are.

But in this environment, a Madison well hitting 100,000 in less than a year is incredible. And "incredible" is the right word. I'm looking at the report and trying to see what I'm missing. What is particularly interesting about this is so few Madison wells are being drilled and thus the chance of hitting a great well is not all that great.

In addition, the decline rate has been minimal, something that plagues Bakken wells.

I have a poor wi-fi connection tonight so I can't do much more analysis -- I am particularly eager to check out the GIS map server tomorrow when I get a better connection.

This video has nothing to do with the Bakken or the posting, but it's the mood I'm in tonight. I post this particular video often on this site and others:


Looking Forward, Looking Back, Slim Dusty
"If I'm alone at night, I can see though all triviality of the day and I'm okay, I just think of those who are dear to me ... " Any better line anywhere?