Nine (9) New Permits -- 1/4 Wells Off Tight Hole Status Fracked -- MRO Reports Two Very Nice Wells -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, October 14, 2011 --

Operators: CLR (2), Petro-Hunt (2), Sequel (2), G3 Operating, Fram Operating, and Oasis.

Fields: Jim Creek, Union Center, Rainbow, Charlson, and Temple.

Sequel has permits for a 2-well pad.

G3, Fram, and Oasis, all have a permit for a wildcat in Williams, Renville, and Williams County respectively.

Only one of four holes released from "tight" status was completed and reported an IP:

• 19320, 881, Whiting, Brehm 21-4H, Mountrail County.

However there were two producing wells that were completed:

• 19667, 902, MRO, Buffalo 34-12H, Dunn
• 20529, 1,523, MRO, Randi USA 41-17H, Mountrail

I remember when it was said elsewhere (and it was true) that MRO never had any good wells, or at least none with IPs greater than 350 or so. That's probably been about two years, and this past year MRO has had some great wells, including these two, based on IPs.

No wells came off the confidential list today but eleven (11) more wells were reported as "plugged or producing" and you know that "all" Bakken wells are producers.

A company unfamiliar to me took over operation of a couple of Petro Harvester wells. Open Range Inc will take over operation of (both near the Canadian border; near Columbus, ND; both originally Sagebrush Resources wells, and both Madison wells:

• 18899, 1, Busch 2-5, spudded in 4/10, and has a cumulative of 22 bbls 18902, 2, Busch 10-5, spudded in 5/10; and has a cumulative of 401 bbls

Two comments:

• I doubt if the IPs of these two wells were inflated; and,
• This is further proof that an IP of 5,000 is preferable to an IP of 1.

I remember when I first started this blog more than two years ago: the big argument was the validity of IPs and if they meant anything. Wow, we've come a long way.

Open Range is new to North Dakota. They now operate a total of four (4) wells all up in Portal field. Two of them are on the confidential list.