This Posting For Newbies Only -- And For Those "Numb" to News Out of the Bakken -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

When you get to the list of reporting wells at the bottom, you can see why the activity is moving to McKenzie County (Watford City). Also, it was interesting to note that BEXP has a well in Mountrail County; I'm used to seeing BEXP in Williams County.

For newbies, in the old days (two years ago) some folks were excited with IPs greater than a 1,000. In fact, I kept a list of all wells with IPs greater than a 1,000. But that got old, and then I only kept track of those with IPs greater than 2,000. Now I've pretty much quit that. If oil companies want to get IPs with 2,000 the first time around, they can.

And check out that BR "Eco-Pad" in the list below; three of four wells reported.

Finally, there are "no" dry wells in the Bakken.

Now, to the exciting news for the last day of September:

First of all, we are back to all-time high of active rigs in North Dakota today: 201

Second, we are on track for 1,840 permits for 2011.  Huge.

Third, on Friday, 23 wells completed were reported by NDIC; and five more came off the confidential list, and four of those reported IPS. Altogether, 27 wells reported IPs on Friday, September 30, 2011. And, best of all, I am not aware of any other press report, blog, mainstream media, etc., that reported this remarkable day. I guess everyone thinks "ho-hum." Something tells me elsewhere will get around to this eventually. Everybody was more interested in man-camp controversy. I can hardly wait for the 3rd quarter earnings reports.

But here are just some of the 27. First of all, Burlington Resources, one of the first to use horizontal fracking in the Bakken (remember Meridian?), reported several phenomenal wells, and I don't recall BR ever being accused of inflating their numbers. BR is one of the more conservative operators in the Bakken. Here are the BR wells reported a couple of days ago:

• 18687, 667, BR, LP Keene 14-35H, Dunn
• 19282, 1,346, BR, Rising Sun 11-1MBH, McKenzie -- same pad as one below, 1 of 4 wells on pad
• 19283, 1,524, BR, Sunline 11-1MB -- same pad as one above, one of four wells on same pad
• 19286, 1,464, BR, Sunline 11-1TFH -- same pad as one above, one of four wells on same pad
• 19487, 2,108, BR, Cleetwood 11-27H, McKenzie
• 19690, 2,884, BR, Mazama 44-21H, McKenzie
• 19775, 2,645, BR, Patton 31-1H, Dunn
• 19883, 1,603, BR, Abercrombie 44-12H, McKenzie

Others of note:

• 17859, 827, Petro-Hunt, McKenzie
• 19540, 2,032, Murex, Vanessa Abigail 33-28H, Williams
• 19554, 1,933, BEXP, Hovde 33-4 1H, McKenzie
• 19672, 1,185, Murex, Virginia Leigh 33-28H, Williams
• 19996, 1,148, Slawson, Alamo 2-19-18H, Mountrail
• 20337, 2,089, Whiting, Johnson 31-4H, McKenzie
• 20338, 980, BEXP, Pladson 4-9 1H, Mountrail
• 20891, 1,167, EOG, Clarks creek 12-0719H, McKenzie