Update on the Whiting Sanish Oil Field Wells -- The Early Years

Just how good has the Sanish oil field been for Whiting? Below are the permits/file numbers from 16000 to 17999 that are Whiting wells in the Sanish oil field. We are starting to get data from wells that are five years old (just a few), but even these "old" wells only go back to 2008/2009/2010 for the most part, and thus most are still less than four years old. And these wells will go on to produce for 30 years.

No dry wells. Two permits were canceled.

Anyone doubt that all of these wells have EURs of 750, and some will eventually hit a million bbls? I assume these wells are pretty much paid for by now.

File number, spud month/year; cumulative as of 1/12; current monthly production (for selected)

• 16068, s6/08, 140K; currently 1,000 bopm
• 16081, PNC
• 16092, s3/06, 28K; currently 400 bopm
• 16463, s12/06, 331K; currently 3,000 bopm
• 16731, s8/07, 392K, currently 4,000 bopm
• 16734, s12/07, 156K, currently erratic production; 9,000 bbls/month as recently as 10/11
• 16780, s9/07, 385K, currently 4,000 bopm
• 16781, s11/07, 368K, currently 4,000 bopm
• 16852, 1/08, 313K, currently erratic production; before taken off-line for 5 months, 5K bopm
• 16871, s3/08, 260K, currently erratic production; last two months, 5K bopm
• 16902, s2/08, 289K, currently 4,000 bopm
• 16905, s5/08, 162K, currently 1,800 bopm
• 16934, s3/09, 214K, currently 4,000 bopm
• 16938, PNC
• 17023, s3/08, 506K, currently 1,500 bopm
• 17032, s2/08, 256K, off line
• 17035, s5/08, 584K; HUGE; currently as much as 10,000 bopm; Kannianen 11-4H, currently 3.5 wells on this 1280-acre spacing unit, including #17907
• 17072, s5/08, 395K, erratic; 5,000 bopm most recent month
• 17080, s8/09, 240K, erratic; 5,000 bopm
• 17081, s8/08, 496K, erratic; 8,000 bopm
• 17092, s4/08, 789K, erratic; 10,000 bopm, Behr 11-34H, 34-154-91; currently there are only two wells in this section (the other being #17872; a third is in DRL status); eventually there will be as many as 8 wells in these spacing 1280-acre spacing units; some evidence (but the jury is still out on this) that neighboring wells can affect each other's EURs
• 17115, s1/09, 203K, 4,000 bopm
• 17133, s6/08, 350K; off line last few months; prior, 4,000 bopm
• 17134, s6/08, 331K, 4,000 bopm
• 17137, s6/08, 168K, erratic, 3,000 bopm
• 17157, s2/09, 122K
• 17158, s8/08, 669K, Richardson Federal 11-9H; currently three wells on this spacing unit including #17917; see comments above for #17092
• 17240, s8/08, 136K
• 17253, s7/08, 310K
• 17284, s9/08, 98K
• 17285, s12/08, 105K
• 17326, s3/10, 197K
• 17337, s1/09, 119K
• 17357, s1/09, 96K
• 17443, s11/08, 297K
• 17544, s3/09, 241K
• 17552, s11/08, 121K
• 17554, s11/08, 109K
• 17575, s11/08, 413K
• 17586, s9/08, 298K
• 17603, s2/09, 319K
• 17605, s9/08, 181K
• 17612, s8/09, 529K
• 17643, s2/09, 120K
• 17700, s12/08, 377K
• 17776, s2/10, 248K
• 17794, s1/09, 366K
• 17827, s4/09, 101K
• 17872, s2/10, 322K
• 17892, s4/09, 79K
• 17895, s4/09, 256K
• 17907, s12/09, 338K
• 17908, s1/10, 231K
• 17912, s12/09, 465K
• 17917, s2/10, 285K
• 17939, s8/10, 73K
• 17935, s2/10, 147K
• 17964, s5/09, 84K
• 17991, s9/09, 87K

If one does the math, calculating production per acre based on EURs of 500K and 8 wells per 1280-acre spacing unit, the numbers are staggering: 3,000 bbls per acre over the lifetime of a Sanish well. At $50/bbl, $150,000/acre.