Mike Filloon on Marathon -- SeekingAlpha -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Mike Filloon had another excellent article in SeekingAlpha.com last week looking at Marathon Oil.

Marathon's activity in both the Eagle Ford (south of San Antonio, Texas) and the Bakken provide an opportunity to compare the two fields.

For newbies, it also provided a look at where the Bakken was headed in terms of spacing: four wells per spacing unit in general, and six wells in some areas of the Bakken. Filloon talks of Marathon's 420-acre spacing in the Bakken.

Filloon noted that Marathon feels that takeaway capacity will be less of an issue by late 2013 or early 2014, "even if by that time the Williston Basin production grown to over a million barrels of oil per day."

According to the article, Marathon's oil:

• 55% to Tesoro refinery in Mandan
• 28% pipeline
• 14% rail

In passing, Filloon reminds us of the potential of downspacing in the Three Forks, and that EOG is testing secondary recovery (water flooding).