Tuesday, February 7, 2012

How Much Does It Cost to Drill/Complete a Well in the Williston Basin?

From Yahoo!InPlay; no link. The link would be dynamic and not there tomorrow.
Earthstone Energy reported that it has concluded drilling operations on its horizontal Ratcliffe well, the Federal #1-5H, in Sheridan County, Montana: The well horizontally penetrated ~ 5,000 ft of Ratcliffe with encouraging results before drilling operations were concluded. The co expects to begin completion operations within the next two weeks.

The Company estimates that its 7.5% share of drilling and completion costs for the two wells will be ~ $1.0 mln. Co plans to fund all the above efforts with existing cash, its cash flow from operations, and/or proceeds from its recent sale of Colorado properties. 
By my calculations, 7.5% of $13 million is about $1 million.  So about $6.5 million/well. If I did the calculations correctly. 5,000-ft lateral would suggest a short lateral. I don't follow Montana activity so I could be wrong on some of this. I believe the Ratcliffe formation is part of the Madison group, not the Bakken.