I posted this commentary back on September 28, 2010, when oil was hitting new 52-week highs at $70. I was trying to make sense of the fast rise in oil prices.
I'm not sure if I agree with all of it now, when I look back on it, but it is interesting that I suggested oil could go higher on "perceived shortage."
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Water Wells That Produce Oil -- Spearfish, North Dakota, USA
File number: cumulative oil, cumulative water:
First group of 10:
1. Note the difference between the two groups of wells. The first group is a list of oil wells producing a bit of water. The second group is a list of water wells producing a bit of oil.
2. The first group, with some exception, have less then three years of production. The second group has 20 - 30 years of production. It was hard to find wells in this group that were still active. Abandoned wells would have made the point even clearer: the second group of wells are water wells producing a bit of oil, and taking 30 years to produce the amount of oil that wells in the first group produce in the first two or three months. Again, the wells in the second group take up to 30 years to produce what the wells in the first group produced in the first two or three months. In some cases, a well in the first group will produce the amount of oil a well in the second group produces in 10 or more years.
3. The wells were selected at "random" -- for the purist, not truly random, but random enough for me. I went to the GIS map server and simply selected 10 wells for each group. For the first group, I chose 5 wells in the Sanish oil field (mostly/all Whiting) and the second 5 wells in the Parshall oil field (mostly/all EOG). The wells in the first group are all Bakken wells.
4. For the wells in the second group, I went to Bottineau County and selected Spearfish wells. They were somewhat harder to find (many fewer) and thus some Madison wells thrown in. One can argue whether #6467 is a bit of an outsider, but again, I just happened to pick that one randomly; it is a Spearfish, but no matter how you look at it, 620,985 bbls of water is a lot of water to dispose of. Meanwhile the well produced 74,000 bbls of oil since 1978. Bakken wells that can't produce 74,000 barrels of oil in one year are considered somewhat of a disappointment.
I know nothing about water disposal, about the number of trucks needed, where to dispose of the water, whether pipelines are eventually laid to pipe away the water, but it certainly appears that there is an opportunity for a water hauling company to grow if the Spearfish formation is developed in Bottineau County. It is my understanding that the CEO of Continental Resources got his start in life hauling water in Oklahoma.
Again, I know nothing about the water hauling business, so maybe this is a non-issue, but it certainly caught my attention. And it certainly caught my attention how long these wells produce. It will be interesting if new technology increases production significantly. Another thing I noticed was that a number of the Spearfish wells were re-entered and a new well targeting the Madison was drilled.
First group of 10:
- 18055: 134K, 25K
- 17102: 87K, 20K
- 19250: 76K, 8K
- 17263: 680K, 5K (wow)
- 18209: 237K, 16K
- 17303: 327K, 23K
- 17346: 379K, 22K
- 16954: 610K, 25K (wow)
- 16885: 554K, 29K
- 17028: 358K, 19K
- 16961: 335K, 28K
- 6467: 74K, 621K (no typo) -- 33 years of production
- 3676: 18K, 86K (abandoned; spudded in 1964, 7 years of production)
- 3677: 12K, 62K, (abandoned; spudded in 1964, 4 years of production)
- 18701: 11K, 41K (EOG well, spudded 2010, a recent well)
- 4103: 57K, 94K (spudded 1966)
- 15193: 4K, 41K (spudded in 2001; still producing)
- 10318: 24K, 164K (no typo) -- 28 years of production
- 12368: 141K, 4.2 million barrels (no typo); 23 years of production (Madison well)
- 4632: 256K, 481K, producing since 1952; (Madison well)
- 8135: 100K, 652K, producing since 1981, 30 years of production and still producing (Madison well)
1. Note the difference between the two groups of wells. The first group is a list of oil wells producing a bit of water. The second group is a list of water wells producing a bit of oil.
2. The first group, with some exception, have less then three years of production. The second group has 20 - 30 years of production. It was hard to find wells in this group that were still active. Abandoned wells would have made the point even clearer: the second group of wells are water wells producing a bit of oil, and taking 30 years to produce the amount of oil that wells in the first group produce in the first two or three months. Again, the wells in the second group take up to 30 years to produce what the wells in the first group produced in the first two or three months. In some cases, a well in the first group will produce the amount of oil a well in the second group produces in 10 or more years.
3. The wells were selected at "random" -- for the purist, not truly random, but random enough for me. I went to the GIS map server and simply selected 10 wells for each group. For the first group, I chose 5 wells in the Sanish oil field (mostly/all Whiting) and the second 5 wells in the Parshall oil field (mostly/all EOG). The wells in the first group are all Bakken wells.
4. For the wells in the second group, I went to Bottineau County and selected Spearfish wells. They were somewhat harder to find (many fewer) and thus some Madison wells thrown in. One can argue whether #6467 is a bit of an outsider, but again, I just happened to pick that one randomly; it is a Spearfish, but no matter how you look at it, 620,985 bbls of water is a lot of water to dispose of. Meanwhile the well produced 74,000 bbls of oil since 1978. Bakken wells that can't produce 74,000 barrels of oil in one year are considered somewhat of a disappointment.
I know nothing about water disposal, about the number of trucks needed, where to dispose of the water, whether pipelines are eventually laid to pipe away the water, but it certainly appears that there is an opportunity for a water hauling company to grow if the Spearfish formation is developed in Bottineau County. It is my understanding that the CEO of Continental Resources got his start in life hauling water in Oklahoma.
Again, I know nothing about the water hauling business, so maybe this is a non-issue, but it certainly caught my attention. And it certainly caught my attention how long these wells produce. It will be interesting if new technology increases production significantly. Another thing I noticed was that a number of the Spearfish wells were re-entered and a new well targeting the Madison was drilled.
For Investors Only: 40 Undervalued Large-Cap and Mid-Cap Stocks
Investors familiar to the blog will note that at least 10 percent of the companies listed in this list of 40 are in the Bakken, including, alphabetically BEXP, EOG, KOG, and NOG.
$20 Million Scene -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA
To all: Is this not incredible?
This is apparently outside my hometown of Williston, North Dakoa, the historic center of the eponymously-named basin, and now the center of the current Bakken boom.
It costs a minimum of $7 million a well, so one is looking at over $20 million -- and almost all of it goes back into the local economy one way or the other. Each dollar circulates through the local economy three or more times. [Operator --> roughneck --> McDonald's employee --> landlord --> taxes.]
If whoever took this photo wants credit for it, please let me know. If you have copyright to it and want it removed, I will do that, also, but I think there's a lot of folks that will get a kick out of it.
This is apparently outside my hometown of Williston, North Dakoa, the historic center of the eponymously-named basin, and now the center of the current Bakken boom.
It costs a minimum of $7 million a well, so one is looking at over $20 million -- and almost all of it goes back into the local economy one way or the other. Each dollar circulates through the local economy three or more times. [Operator --> roughneck --> McDonald's employee --> landlord --> taxes.]
If whoever took this photo wants credit for it, please let me know. If you have copyright to it and want it removed, I will do that, also, but I think there's a lot of folks that will get a kick out of it.
Williston, North Dakota, Winter, 2010 - 2011 I believe that in the distance, one can make out even more rigs. Notice that beautiful ribbon of highway off to the right. It's very possible my dad was involved in the building and/or maintenance of that highway if it's not a state highway. Some of the best years my Dad says he had was when he was a county commissioner. At that time, when I was 12 years or so, he hired me as a "community organizer" to knock on doors and ask folks to get out and vote. Even if they didn't want to vote for my Dad, he wanted them to vote anyway. He paid my siblings and me ten cents for every door we knocked on. He kept track of the number of doors we knocked on by the number of little paper announcements we brought back with us. I understand that one of my siblings would put her stack of announcements behind someone's hedge. |
