Six (6) New Permits -- Liberty Resources LLC Getting Active -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, November 29, 2011 --

Operators: CLR (2), MRO, Fram Operating, Oasis, Whiting

Fields: Bailey, Oliver, Cottonwood, Cedar Coulee, and Gaylord.

Fram has a permit in Renville County.

Gaylord oil field is in Billings County, part of Whiting's southern operations in North Dakota.

I knew it was too good to be true: yesterday, all five wells coming off the confidential list were fracked/completed. Today, only one of three wells coming off the confidential list was fracked/completed. And it wasn't even a particularly good well.

Four wells on DRL status reported today: Hess had two good wells; Samson reported a Divide County well, and Petro Harvester reported a Madison well:

• 20148, 952, Hess, EN-Chamley-156-93-0508H-1, Mountrial (sic) (NDIC typo on this one two with regard to name of well)
• 20391, 824, Hess GO-Haug-156-98-3031H-1, Williams
• 20232, 304, Samson Resources, Mustang 7-6-163-98H, Divide
• 21455, 55, Petro Harvester, J. Swenson 22-1, Burke County, Madison formation (NDIC failed to provide the name of this well; lots of typos on daily activity reports some days)

I don't know if this means anything. If I was still taking comments, someone might tell me what was going on. Cornerstone Natural Resources has canceled seven permits. That's not unusual for permits to be canceled; there is often a good reason. But this one catches my attention, all coming at the same time by a company that is relatively small in the Bakken. Cornerstone has only 47 permits in North Dakota. The seven canceled permits are distributed across several oil fields.

This is interesting: Newfield has transferred operator status of these wells from Newfield to Liberty Resources, LLC. 

• 14637, 210, Liberty Resources LLC, Jeffrey 33-33, Williams, Madison formation; s5/97; t7/97;  54K 10/11
• 14771, 219, Liberty Resources LLC, Shae 21-33, Williams, Madison formation; s10/97; t12/97; 68K 10/11
• 20748, conf, Liberty Resources LLC, Lindy 156-100-10-3-1H, Williams

Liberty Resources LLC only has nine (9) wells in North Dakota. Could Liberty Resources LLC be a subsidiary of Newfield? Not likely; nothing at their website. Liberty Resources, LLC, does have some backing however; LR LLC has paid $4,250/acre for several 640-acre tracts in Williams County. On August 30, 2011, just a few months ago, I noted that Liberty Resources LLC was a new operator in North Dakota. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there is a board of directors connection between the two. A search might lead you here.

Again, for newbies, this is a great site to get a snapshot view of players in the Bakken.

And this is interesting. Again, without comments, I may not get information. Energy and Environment Research Center (EERC), University of North Dakota, reported four dry holes in Burke County. All four wells were very, very shallow: total depth of the four -- 1,211; 1,242; 1,275; and, 1,640 feet.