Widening the Highway South of Williston -- Heart of the Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Remember the post on widening of the US 85 south of Williston on the way to Alexander? At that time, there was no activity just across the river, north of Indian Hill. Tonight, we took a drive south of Williston, turning south at the Four-Mile Corner and crossing the Missouri River.

This is what it looks like as of September 17, 2011:

Immediately south of the bridge, work has begun to put in passing lanes on both sides all the way to the top of Indian Hill where work had already begun when we traveled there a couple weeks ago. It is amazing how fast these guys can move. The top soil has been removed on both sides of the road from the bridge all the way to the top of Indian Hill. Going up Indian Hill, traveling south, the road will actually be five lanes across: two lanes downhill and three lanes uphill.

The chokepoint appears to be the bridge itself. It's a nice wide 2-lane bridge, but that's it: a two-lane bridge, and it's relatively new. The road on both sides of the bridge will be 4-lane (or purists will say, two lanes with passing lanes on both sides).

Mideast Heats Up -- Not a Bakken Story

I purposely have not been posting regarding political events in the Mideast, but everything points to further chaos and conflict.

But I was completely unaware of another potential source of conflict. I was sent this and will post it as I got it with minimal editing:

The Middle East may be about to go to a new level

Fighting over Natural Gas/Oil under the Eastern Mediterranean

http://www.debka.com/article/21311/

1.  Cyprus's Block 12 where drilling starts Monday borders on the huge Leviathan field Israel is developing in the eastern Mediterranean, whose proven gas reserves are calculated to be 8.5 trillion cubic feet. This would supply the entire US economy's needs for a year.

2.  Noble Energy of Houston has a license to drill in Cyrus's Aphrodite while the Israeli company Delek which is developing the Israeli offshore gas fields also has an option in the Cypriot field.

3.  Greece and Israel concluded a mutual defense pact on Sept. 4, 2011. Ten days later, Prime Ministers George Papandreou and Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to activate the pact in the light of Turkish threats against Israel and to exploration activity in the Mediterranean basin."

"The guessing in Washington, NATO and Israel is that the most likely arena for a potential clash of arms in the Mediterranean is offshore Cyprus and it is most likely to evolve into sea and air confrontatons involving Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and Israel."

= = = = = =

Debka, where this article was printed, is slightly and sometimes a pronounced reactionary Israeli Newsletter, but there are quite a few other sources suggesting the same.

Comment: it takes a very long time to fully develop an off-shore gas field, so my hunch is that there will be lots of sabre-rattling, but the risk of conflict in this area is probably not as great as the risk closer to Israeli borders. 

Top Stories: September 10 -- September 16, 2011

The top story of the week: an unexpected Lodgepole "in the Bakken"

Cluster of new Madison wells in Dublin oil field?

Two more motels: one in Watford City; one in Stanley

New bypass around Williston -- 2013 -- an $85 million project

New extended stay hotel north of Williston -- Value Place Hotel

First well with 2560-acre spacing

145 apartment unit complex in Williston -- open next spring (2012) -- huge

New BHI building west of Williston: 150,000 square feet -- SuperSite

Leonardite: another Williston, North Dakota, industry

Indeed.com: resumes, job watch

Random Post -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Experienced Williston Oil Basin oilmen continue to remark that what they are seeing now -- in terms of the boom -- is something they've never seen before. They continue to say that even now, when the boom is becoming somewhat like "groundhog day."

This may be another reason the operators are so excited about the Bakken: look at past experience of the legacy wells. Every once in awhile I come across an active legacy well, such as an old Madison, that is still producing oil, and after 20 - 30 years, has produced a cumulative of 300,000 total barrels. I then go to the NDIC GIS map server to find out where it is located, and then check out the legacy wells in the immediate area. For every outstanding legacy well I come across, I find any number of old wells in the immediate area that were a) dry; b) not economical; or, c) economical, but not all that great. I would assume someone knows the average EUR of legacy wells, but if an exciting Madison well is 300,000 bbls, it won't bring up the average a whole lot when there are one or two dry Madison wells to offset it.

But in the Bakken, there is by comparison, "no" dry holes. And even the poorest Bakken wells  will hit 300,000 bbls over the lifetime of the wells. Some say the average EUR of a Bakken well will be 603,000 bbls.  There have got to be a few Bakken clunkers to bring down the average. With that in mind, the good Bakken wells are going to be very, very good.

I wonder if the average EUR of a Madison, taking into account the dry wells, is significantly under 100,000 bbls. I don't know. I'm sure the data is out there.

On top of that, there are going to be significantly more Bakken wells than ever drilled before in North Dakota.

Oil Rig Mishaps

Events

• Near Alexander, July 16, 2013. Does not sound like a rig mishap; oil services support.
• North of Watford City, January 19, 2013; one death, during fracking operations; Halliburton cited by OSHA
• Newfield blowout, five miles west of Watford City; during completion; no injuries reported; December 22, 2012
• Slawson blowout, south of New Town, well blowout; controlled in 15 hours during a winter night in North Dakota, December 13, 2012.  
• Northeast of Stanley, ND; man falls off rig; dies. March 5, 2012. 
• McKenzie County, September 15, 2011. Location: at the top of Indian Hill, just south of the Missouri River on County Road 4. In the vicinity of well/file #15581, Lynn 1.
• Oil well explosion, east of Sidney, MT; September 4, 2011. 
• Denbury's Franchuk 44-20SWH, #18367, August, 2011; at the link, go to the comments. A non-event.
• Cyclone 18, July 24, 2011; a "bad" one;
• 2006: #16031, Kadrmas 41-1H, a double-lateral; blowout and fire; the other lateral completed; still active as of 11/12; t9/06; cum 155K 11/12; 

Fatalities

• 2012: 6 (fiscal 2012) "13 in oil patch; 7 of those ... vehicular crashes"
• 2011: 5 (fiscal 2011)
• 2010: 3 (fiscal 2010)

Injuries

• 1,897 (fiscal 2011)
• 747 (fiscal 2010)

BEXP Has A Nice New Well -- Fracking Backlog Continues -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Of the seven wells that were added to the "New Wells Reporting" list today, six of them were placed on DRL status, meaning they have not been completed within the six-month confidentiality period (which generally means they have not been fracked). Six wells out of seven; well above the 50 percent rate. Even BEXP had one well put on DRL status (unusual for BEXP, though it does happen periodally).

Having said that, BEXP had another great well:

• 20345, 2,746, BEXP, Gunderson 15-22 1H, Banks, Bakken

Check out the description of the Banks oil field here.

Storhaug Well -- Wildcat -- Near Dublin Oil Field -- Madison Wells? -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Update

November 15, 2013: there are a lot of comments to scroll through, and comments are not searchable by search engines, as far as I know. On this date, a reader posted this important note for those trying to follow the development of the Bakken. We had raised a question about some new wells in this area without the "H" designation; apparently they are horizontal wells, regardless. See comments posted about this date.  We also raised a question about 1280-acre vs 2560-acre spacing for new wells, which had to do with a 2560-acre spacing that included sections 1, 2, 11, and 12 in T157-R100. This was the answer provided by the reader:

I visited with HRC about this and the only wells affected will be any new wells along the section line between the two 1280 spacings (maximum 3 wells). All other new wells drilled will remain part of the original 1280 spacing. They sent me their drilling plan which is to drill up to 13 wells per 1280 spacing and 3 wells in the 2560 spacing.

November 22, 2011: New wells in the immediate area.

• 21882, PNC, Petro-Hunt, Dullum Family Trust 157-100-2C-1-1, wildcat

Three wells in a cluster, in the northeast corner of the next section to the west, 3-157-100:

• 21746, 653, Oasis/Zenergy, Mary 3-10H, wildcat, t1/12; cum 157K 4/20;
• 21747, 685, Oasis/Zenergy, Hanson 34-27H, Dublin; t12/12; cm 182K 4/20;
• 21748, PNC, Oasis/Zenergy, Mad Dublin 1-3H, Dublin/wildcat; a Madison well;

One well in the northeast corner of the next section to the west, 4-157-100:

• 20953, 343, Bruin/HRC/Petro-Hunt, Johnson Family Trust 157-100-4A9-1H, Marmon; s9/11; t2/12; cum 114K 4/20;

And finally, one more well, this one immediately across the section line from 20953:

• 21496, 791, Oasis/Zenergy, Hanson 33-28H, Church/wildcat, t5/13; cum 189K4/20;

Original Post 

I promised a reader I would do a stand-alone post on the Storhaug well:

• 19646, 482, Petro-Hunt, Storhaug 157-100-2A-11-1H, Bakken; s3/11; t8/11; cum 198K 10/16; 23 stages, sand only, no acid.

The well is a good well, but not yet great.

In looking up this well, I noted a peculiar well pattern in this section (2-157-100), which I have blogged about before, and perhaps in a big more depth:

• 19646 is in the northeast quadrant
• 21036 (PNC) is in the northwest quadrant
• 21161 is closer to the midline on the east; rather than near a section line where one normally finds horizontal Bakken wells.

In addition, a similar well, #21326 is also in an unusual location in the neighboring section.

• 21036, PNC, Petro-Hunt, Storhaug 157-100-2B-2-1 (note, it lacks "H" designation) Dublin field
• 21161, TA, Petro-Hunt, Ostad 157-100-2D-1-1 (also, lacks "H" designation) Dublin field
• 21326, PNC, Petro-Hunt, Swenson 157-100-1C-2-1 (lacks "H" designation), Dublin field

It's also interesting that the three latest wells are now in the Dublin field; the 19646 Storhaug well was a wildcat; the Dublin field must have been extended; if so, the GIS map server has not been updated to show that.

Now for the interesting part (and this is why I love to blog; one never knows what one might find):

Notice the three wells above that don't have the "H" designation. Could they be vertical wells? Could they be targeting the Madison forrmation. In the adjoining/same section (section 1-T157N-R100W):

• 11490, 31, Rim Operating/SM Energy (originally HNG Oil), Curran 1 1, Dublin, a Madison well; 1985; t1985; 383K 10/16; still producing a respectable 700 bbls/month (700 x $50 = $35,000/month with almost no expenses). This well has been a steady producer from the beginning. It has been producing steadily for 29 years; the longest it has been off-line in any one month was 8 days back in 1998.

Cattle Round-Up in the Bakken -- North Dakota, USA

Actually with all those trees in the background, unlikely to be in North Dakota.