Chesapeake Makes Dickinson Press' Day -- Says It Will Probably Leave the Dickinson Area -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Updates

February 5, 2012: Teegue provides his thoughts on this issue at this thread.

Original Post

Link to Bismarck Tribune. 

[Chesapeake] says it's taking a time-out to analyze results from six confidential wells.

The company has the attention of people living in the New England, Regent and Mott areas, who are waiting to see if it will drill another 12 wells that have been permitted, including a new one just last week in Hettinger County.

CHK has leased at least 100,000 mineral acres in Hettinger County alone, Resner estimated. 

[A company spokesman] denies talk that the company is pulling out of its southwestern North Dakota probe.

Link here to Dickinson Press.

I can only assume they are opening the champagne bottles in the Dickinson Press newsrooms:

Chesapeake Energy, a major oil company with work sites south of Dickinson, is uprooting two rigs and could possibly move out of North Dakota, said Kelsey Campbell, coordinator of corporate development and government relations for the company.

“We’re moving our rigs out of the area for the time being and not drilling anymore wells until we have a better idea of where we want to continue our exploration in the future,” Campbell said Thursday."

The company is not sure when the rigs will be moved. Campbell said “there hasn’t been as much activity in the southern area as there has been up north near Williston” and they are looking to collect core samples in other areas.

I was alerted to this in a comment/e-mail (I now forget) about two months ago, but chose not to post until confirmatory reporting. I may have posted one of the notes; I forget. The writer said that Chesapeake had pulled its landmen out of Hettinger County. In fact, that might have been a news story. I've forgotten.

Regardless, not a big deal in the big scheme of things. This will take some pressure off the Dickinson folks for which they seem to want.

But Chesapeake has huge opportunities elsewhere and it can be a nuisance to manage two outlying rigs if not a lot is happening. 

As I have noted since late last fall, the center of activity will most likely be around Watford City in 2012.