Overview of Activity in the Williston Oil Basin -- Spring, 2011 -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA -- March 27, 2011

It is extremely difficult to keep track of all the various entities in the Bakken and their plans/strategies but here's a start. This is a work in progress and subject to updates between now and first day of summer. I placed the oil E&P into various categories to help "newbies" better understand all the oil companies operating in the Williston Basin. The tiers are subjective and pretty much based on a) net acreage; b) perceived effectiveness; and, c) frequency one reads about them in the general press with regard to the Bakken.

Major oil exploration and production operators: 

• CLR: the "face" of the Bakken; the most number of rigs by far; the most acreage; goal is to triple the size of their company in five years; operates throughout the Bakken; completed 105 gross wells in 2010 --> more than 10% of all wells drilled; CLR knows the geology of the Bakken probably better than anyone; first in North Dakota Bakken to advocate multi-well pads (Eco-Pads)
• WLL: tied for third (with EOG) for most acreage; Sanish oil field is WLL's cash cow; setting up operations around Belfield (North Dakota) for Three Forks "pinch out"; perhaps second best IPs (second only to BEXP), particularly great IPs in the Sanish
• BEXP: moved from second tier to first tier based on outstanding IPs and very good wells; now at the top of many lists published by analysts following the Bakken; announced "SmartPad" multi-well pad concept in 2011
• HES: second most net acreage (after CLR); lackluster IPs and wells in general (at least that's my impression; not statistically verified); six wells on same pad (or abutting pads); added significant addition to Bakken portfolio when it bought American Oil and Gas (AEZ)
• EOG: third in net acreage (tied with WLL); started off fast in the Parshall oil field, but seems to have lost their touch (again, that's my impression; not statistically verified);

Second tier exploration and production operators:

• XOM: in the Bakken through their subsidiary XTO in southwest area of the reservation
• COP: in the Bakken through their subsidiary BR in various areas of the Bakken; was the largest oil producer in North Dakota leading up to the current boom; has since dropped back
• OXY USA (Occidental): entered North Dakota Bakken by acquiring Anschutz Bakken acreage in 2010 
• NFX (Newfield): fair amount of acreage; generally nice wells
• MRO: fair amount of acreage, but wells mediocre in general
• DNR: see below
• OAS: seemingly came out of nowhere to become a huge player in the Bakken; moved to new level when they bought Fidelity (MDU) acreage back in 2009 time frame
• ERF: second tier but don't hear much about them

Third tier exploration and production:

• KOG: hard to say whether should be in second tier; predominantly in southwest area of the reservation; partnering with XOM, others;
• WMB: acquires 7 percent of mineral rights in the reservation in late 2010; haven't heard much from them yet

Fourth tier exploration and production:

• SSN (Samson Oil and Gas): no rigs; acreage only; partners with operators; currently concentrating its activity in Stockyard Creek,
• GEOI: often partners with Slawson (see below)
• QEP: small player in the Bakken based on acreage
• SM: small player in the Bakken based on acreage

Oil Exploration and Production, Others Not Mentioned Above

• NOG: unique business plan; money and acreage only for working interest in wells; recent controversy;
• Slawson: private company; very, very good wells
• Fidelity: subsidiary of MDU

Fracking Technology

• Packers Plus Energy Services: 60-Stage Frac Technology
  

Tertiary Recovery / Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

• DNR: EOR not yet common in North Dakota, but when/if CO2 injection works, Denbury will be the leader; became major oil exploration and production company when it acquired Encore a year or so ago
• Crescent Point: major EOR (waterflooding) player; based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Pipelines

• Enbridge, oil: major pipeline operator in the Bakken; will double takeaway capacity in 2011-2012 time frame; announced in 2011 that it would ship only Bakken light, sweet oil in its system
• ONEOK, NGL: a 600-mile pipeline from ND Bakken to ONEOK's Overland Pass  Pipeline which connects southern Wyoming to Conway, Kansas;$500-million project
• Range Energy (Sugar Land, TX): COLT extender

Spearfish Formation in the Williston Basin

• Legacy Oil and Gas: Canadian company with connections to Surge Energy; Calgary-based
• Surge Energy: recently acquired Ritchie's Bottineau Spearfish wells; Calgary-based
• EOG: but IPs have been very, very poor; minimally active

Fracking

• SLB: huge fracking operations center in Williston, North Dakota
• HAL: made first announcement to have 24/7 frac teams to try to keep up with schedule
• Sanjel: huge fracking operations center in Williston, North Dakota, across the road from SLB

Railroad Oil Shipping/Railports

• BNI: now owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
• EOG: railroad loading terminals, Stanley
• Savage Companies (Salt Lake City): railport at Trenton, southwest of Williston 
• Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (KMEP):  Dore and Stanley, North Dakota
• Range Energy (Sugar Land, Texas): Epping, North Dakota

Natural Gas Gathering and Processing Facilities

• MDU: headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota; has been in North Dakota "forever"; focused on natural gas and missed the Bakken oil boom
• ONEOK: announced major investment plans for western North Dakota in 2010; subsidiary Bear Paw Energy is operator 

That's it: it's closing time. 

Bottineau Spearfish Wells -- The Canadian Invasion -- More on Relationships Among Involved Oil Companies -- March 27, 2011

Updates

When I started this blog a couple of years ago, I placed the "major" or better known producers that were in North Dakota on this sidebar to try to keep some organization. It hasn't worked out too well; just too much information to keep track of, sort, link, etc.

One of those producers that comes to mind is Crescent Point Energy (every time I type that, I think of "Hotpoint" -- amazing what a trade name will do).

When I remember, I will cross-link Crescent Point Energy stories at this post. A lot of folks write in from Bottineau area asking about the Spearfish; now I have a place to gather that material.

Since I was remiss in leaving Crescent Point off the sidebar so long, I will leave them at the top of this list for awhile, and eventually put them where they belong alphabetically.

News

February 18, 2018: huge waterflooding project in the Viewfield field of the Bakken in southwest Saskatchewan. 

May 27, 2015: acquires Legacy Oil + Gas.

April 15, 2014: Spectacular Three Forks wells just north of Divide County, North Dakota, in Canada.

October 9, 2013: comment from a reader -- "Just noticed that even if Crescent Point isn't drilling right now in ND, they are renewing their permits. They renewed two permits shown in the Oct. 7 NDIC Daily Activity Report."

February 17, 2012: Crescent Point acquires 20,000 net acres from PetroBakken in southeastern Saskatchewan. 

Website

August 31, 2011: Crescent Point Energy acquires more than 78 net sections in North Dakota -- sections, so about 640 acres x 78 = about 50,000 acres, along with 750 boepd production. In conjunction with the acquisition, Crescent Point has entered into a two-year agreement with a "leading US fracture stimulation company with operations in North Dakota to secure access to equipment and services for the Company's expanded development plans in 2012."

Crescent Point is also upwardly revising its 2011 exit production rate to more than 77,500 boepd from 76,500 boepd.

This new acquisition will target lower-risk Bakken and Three Forks zones.

Original Post

As noted earlier, Corinthian Exploration (USA) Corporation acquired Ritchie's Spearfish wells in Bottineau County, North Dakota. I assume Corinthian Exploration (USA) Corporation is related to Corinthian Energy in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Corinthian Energy was bought by Surge Energy in 2010 and that's why when you click on http://www.corinthianenergy.ca you are re-directed to Surge Energy.

In addition, Legacy Oil and Gas also has Spearfish wells in Bottineau County.

According to the Surge Energy website, Paul Colborne is the chairman of Surge Energy. He is also the Chairman of Legacy Oil and Gas and serves on the Board of Directors of Crescent Point Energy Corporation. Crescent Point has permits north of Williston in and around the Ambrose field. Crescent Point has said the Alberta Bakken and the North Dakota Bakken may be amenable to waterflooding.

For those interested in more detail regarding the relationship between some of these companies, click here, and read the small print regarding the directors. Very, very interesting, although I prefer watching Lily Allen. She quit producing number one records because she couldn't make any money at it; that was back in 2009. In 2011, she started her own record label. Hopefully she starts charting again.

Friday Night, Lily Allen. If you like this, you might enjoy seeing Lily Allen live on the Porter Wagoner show.

Denbury Onshore, LCC, May Have The Most Productive Well in North Dakota History

In the recent transaction in which Denbury Onshore, LLC, acquired 521wells from Encore, one of the wells included perhaps the most productive well in North Dakota history:

Dinsdale 2-4, original operator -- Trans Texas Gas, (Lodgepole, conventional well)

• Permit/File Number: 14213
• Original Operator: Trans Texas Gas 
•  Current Operator: Denbury Onshore, LLC
• IP: 3,357 bbls/day
• IP Test date: 12/30/1996
• Cumulative oil: 4,737,854 (January 31, 2011) Currently: 5K/month
• Comment: this was a Lodgepole well; inside the city limits of Dickinson; a vertical well. This is a phenomenal story: 4 million barrels oil since spudding, and it continues to average 250 bbls/day. One just has to wonder how big that pool of oil is.

Can you imagine the number of accountants and geologists it took to review the value of those 521 wells, including the value of holding leases by production? My hunch is they used the IBM computer that recently won on Jeopardy!