Great Way To Finish Out The Year -- Ten (10) New Permits -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, December 30, 2011 --

Operators: Slawson (4), KOG (2), Whiting (2), Hess, Samson Resources

Fields: Rainbow, South Fork, Alger, Bluffton, Bell. 

Just when I was thinking (earlier today) that I had not seen much of Slawson lately, they show up with four permits on the last business day of the year: it looks like permits for a 4-well pad.

Both of Whiting's permits are in the very interesting Bell field.

Five wells were released from "tight hole" status; only two were completed, including:

• 17891, 1,064, Marathon, Kovaloff 34-8H, Dunn County; that's a relatively old permit.

I was not familiar with Bluffton oil field. And I can see why. It's located about as far north as one can get in North Dakota, up near the Divide County/Canadian border (but not the farthest north; there are a couple fields farther north). Understandably, there is very little activity in this field. Samson Resources has the Bluffton oil field permit.

Rainbow oil field is in northern Williams County near Divide County; it is on township in size and no activity yet. In fact, with absolutely no activity, except for two dry holes from a previous boom, one wonders how this got to be a field, and why this new permit is not a wildcat. I must be missing something. 

South Fork is in the reservation, just west of Heart Butte, a very good field. South Fork has some activity, and my hunch is that it is going to be a very good field. KOG has the permit in South Fork. And a lot more permits there, also.