Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Permits in January, 2012 -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

I recorded 168 permits issued by the NDIC for the month of January, 2012. That puts us on track for about 2,000 new permits this year.

By producer:
  • CLR: 18 new permits
  • Whiting: 13 new permits
By county:
  • Dunn: 34
  • McKenzie: 37
  • Mountrail: 34
  • Stark: 10
  • Williams: 34
There is a lot of talk of expiring leases this year, now that we are into the fifth year of this Bakken boom, which I say started in 2007.  I am sure we will start to see anecdotal evidence of this but in the big scheme of things it won't amount to much.

Every day, I update my data base of wells reporting IPs. I generally do not have to open up the database of permits in 2009 (or before). Most of the updates are for permits issued in 2011 and in 2010, and even those in the latter are dwindling in number. It is very, very unusual to have to open up the 2009 database to record a new well.

Operators appear to be very "current" on their permits.

6 comments:

  1. Is there anywhere to see how many total permits
    (not yet drilled) are held by each operator?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One could painstakingly go through the NDIC's database and find those permits with LOC only ("location" -- permit only) but it would change daily as drillers spud.

      Obviously the NDIC would have that database but I don't know if it's available.

      I used to include "plugged or producing" in my database but it got too time-consuming and after three years, noted that it was out of date as soon as it was posted.

      Delete
  2. Plains Exploration annnounced a new gas plant at Ross. ONEOK and Hess are getting competition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I've posted a stand-alone post on this development elsewhere. You know, I am so non-business oriented, I did not even think of this as competition. I saw this as another effort to manage the flaring issue, as well as make some money for Plains. Funny. I guess that's what a career in the military did to me; I completely miss the competitive angle so often. Smile.

      Delete
  3. One of the most interesting stories of the year. If you need a well worked over, ...

    http://gmx.investorroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=147

    anon 1

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I certainly hope this is not the norm in the Bakken: needing workover rigs to fish out all the debris, but then, what do I know?

      Delete

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