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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Ten (10) New Permits -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, first one for the new year, January 3, 2012 --

Operators: Whiting (4), OXY USA (2), Murex, BEXP, True Oil, Oasis

Fields: Manning, Sanish, Dutch Henry Butte, Dimond, Briar Creek, Gros Ventre

Murex has a wildcat in McKenzie; True Oil has a wildcat in McKenzie.

Thirteen (13) wells released from "tight status." Five of those not completed/not fracked.

The eight wells completed, included:
  • 19876, 2,879, BEXP, Enderud 9-4 1H, McKenzie
  • 20036, 2,331, XTO, FBIR Smith 11X-10, Dunn
  • 20059, 1,357, Whiting, Waldock 14-4XH, Mountrail
  • 20588, 1,492, BEXP, Mrachek Trust 22-15 1H, McKenzie
  • 20629, 929, CLR, Patterson 1-13H, McKenzie
True Oil's wildcat is "in name" only a wildcat; only due to the strict definition of a wildcat is this permit for a wildcat. In fact, the permit is for a location one section away from all the rest of True Oil's huge wells in Red Wing Creek oil field. This permit is also for a location in Red Wing Creek oil field.

The Murex wildcat is on the Montana state line in the far southwest corner of Williams County. This is definitely a wildcat. This one looks like it will be a Bakken with 640-acre spacing.

    6 comments:

    1. Bruce, how many permits will ND issue in calendar yr 2012 ??

      ReplyDelete
    2. 1969.

      This year it was 1,926 (my database; NDIC may vary).

      I don't think we will see a significant increase:

      a) infrastructure will set limits
      b) activity will increase in Montana, taking away some permit activity in North Dakota.

      The wild card is increased number of multi-well pads which can dramatically increase the number of permits very, very quickly.

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    3. What do u think of OXY they seem to be moving pretty fast for just getting going

      ReplyDelete
    4. The announcement that OXY USA was buying Anschutz was December, 2010, so it's been exactly a year.

      I just ran through every 2011 permit (Anschutz and OXY USA).

      I was surprised to see so many Anschutz and early OXY USA permits canceled.

      They have a lot of wells on DRL status; they have reached total depth but are waiting to frack them.

      These are the IPs of the wells that reported in 2011: 77, 75, 10, 55, 48, and 65.

      So, I see a lot of permit activity; a lot of Anschutz permits canceled; a lot of wells on DRL list (meaning they are waiting to be fracked); and the wells that have been completed (most in Dimond oil field) have had extremely poor IPs. Their well in Murphy Creek had an IP of 65; despite the fact that Murphy Creek has a history of very good wells.

      We will know more in six months when their wells on DRL status are finally completed/fracked.

      I was always impressed with the number of permits OXY USA garnered this year -- a fast start -- but their IPs are very, very poor. We need to see the results of their Fayette and Little Knife wells.

      All operators are behind on their fracking, but it seems OXY is as delayed as any which I suggested might happen when they made their announcement because a new company in the Bakken probably doesn't have its own dedicated frack team(s).

      ReplyDelete
    5. Maybe Oxy just needs to drill wells to hold leases by production and is thinking long-term? Whiting is a mid-cap company and needs to produce as much oil as possible to pay debt? Just something I think about when I watch Oxy.

      ReplyDelete
    6. You are definitely correct about debt.

      Cash flow is probably as big a challenge; paying for all those wells.

      And yes, the bigger companies (OXY, XOM, COP) all appear to have a different strategy than the big players in the Bakken (CLR, WLL, BEXP, KOG, OAS).

      But the IPs of the OXY wells so far (all less than 100) are .... not sustainable. And all the permits that they canceled. Compare these results with how great the Anschutz wells were.

      But we will know more when OXY starts reporting some wells.

      ReplyDelete

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