Ten (10) New Permits -- An Eye-Popping 1-Million-Bbl-Madison Well -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

A week or so ago someone asked me my prediction for the number of new permits in calendar year 2012. I suggested less than 2,000 (or about 2,000) but permits for multi-well pads could change things dramatically. Today, "we" see exactly what I was talking about. Dakota-3 (WMB) has six new permits: but only two new pads.

Daily activity report, January 9, 2012:

Operators: Dakota-3 (6), EOG, Petro-Hunt, CLR, BR

Fields: Clear Water, Tree Top, Van Hook, Stoneview

Eight wells were released from "tight hole"status (four were not completed/fracked), including:

• 20184, 2,033, Whiting, Snyder 21-11H, Sanish (Mcountrail), t7/11; cum 368K 6/16;
• 20275, 2,924, Oasis, Kline Federal 5300 11-18H, Sanish (McKenzie), t7/11; cum 369K 6/16;
• 20926, 2,682, KOG, Skunk Creek 12-10-11-9H3, Baker (Dunn); t7/11; cum 215K 6/16;

Those are incredible IPs by anyone's criteria, and to see three IPs like this of four wells reporting, makes it even more incredible. "Eye-popping" for me. Maybe not for others.

I was not familiar with the Tree Top oil field. It is located in the north end of Billings County, one of the southwestern counties in North Dakota's oil patch. There are a lot of old, abandoned wells in this field, but here are some vertical wells (160-acre spacing for the most part?) that are still active in the Tree Top (these were not screened before selecting; I simply put down a few wells that were still active in one area in the Tree Top):

• 7349, 361, Petro-Hunt, Fritz 2, s11/79, t3/80; cum 862K 7/17; Madison
• 7352, 116, Petro-Hunt, Fritz "A" 1, s2/80, t5/80; cum 336K 6/16; Madison
• 7353, PA/473, Petro-Hunt, Fritz "A" 2, s1/80, t4/80; cum 428K 5/09; Madison
• 7934, IA/331, Petro-Hunt, Anna Osadchuk B-1, s12/80, t7/81; cum 543K 5/16; Duperow
  
• 8116, 926, Condor Petroleum, Federal 2-28, s2/81, t3/81; cum 1.030921 million bbls 7/17, Madison; it appears "they" are up to something on this well; it has been on-line for only one day each month since 3/11; prior to that a consistent 600 bbls/month. [Update: starting December, 2011, this well is now back on line and can still produce about 600 bbls/month.]
• 10106, 127, Petro-Hunt, Dorothy Osadchuk D 1, s3/81, t5/83; cum 450K 6/16; Madison
• 10189, 90, Encore, Federal 5-27, s5/83, t7/83; cum 316K 6/16; Madison
• 13871, PA/162 (Duperow); 152 (Madison); Petro-Hunt, Fritz 5, s10/95, t12/95; cum 104K 6/14, Madison, Duperow

All of these wells were drilled by an operator other than Petro-Hunt. Petro-Hunt acquired these wells after they were drilled (I did not check to see when).

So, would one rather own 10 acres on 1280-acre spacing with a 1-million-bbl-Bakken well, or 10 acres on a 160-acre spacing with a 1-million-bbl-Madison well? Wow.