Thursday, April 5, 2012

Random Look at Confidential Wells in the Williston Basin By Operator

1,700 wells on the confidential list -- Williston Basin

Provided by Rory (thank you). Rory tells me there are 1,700 wells on the "confidential list." This list only goes down to operators with at least ten (10) wells on the list:

Continental Resources 189
Hess 137
BEXP 130
Petro-Hunt 120
Whiting 80
MRO 76
Enerplus 75
KOG 74
Burlington Resources 60
XTO  59
Denbury Resources 49
EOG 49
WPX Energy Williston 49
Oasis 46
Slawson 45
Samson Resources 44
OXY USA 39
Zenergy 39
Newfield 36
Hunt Oil 27
QEP Energy 27
SM Energy 25
G3 Operating 20
Zavanna 19
Crescent Point Energy 16
Helis 14
Legacy Oil & Gas 14
Baytex Energy 10
Fidelity (MDU) 10

5 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Chesapeake has seven (7) wells on the confidential list.

      Along with Chesapeake, there were another 39 companies with at least one well on the confidential list.

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  2. Thanks for the info,

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bruce; are these 1,700 wells counted in the gross well count of 6600?

    Have never been clear on this, thanks for any heads up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know for sure; I think I have seen this issue addressed somewhere, but am unable to find a link.

      However, my hunch is that the wells on the confidential list are not counted as the actively producing wells of "6,600." This is my reasoning:

      The "6,600" number is a firm number of wells that are actively producing oil as determined by the NDIC. The NDIC is getting a report from each actively producing well each month for purposes of royalties.

      On the other hand, a well that is on the confidential list, for all we know, could be a DRY well. In fact, in the old days, as many as 9 out of 10 wells could be DRY. Until the well comes off the confidential list, one does not know if it is producing oil, or if it is DRY. In addition, the operator could shut in a well even though it will eventually be brought on line.

      I think to keep the "6,600" active well number from pinging up and down like a yo-yo due to the vagaries of wells on the confidential list, the number is referencing only wells that are designated "A" or active on the NDIC report. Again, the Bakken is different from "legacy" formations: 99% of Bakken wells will be producers; in the past, with other formations, that was definitely not the case.

      However, like births and deaths, the new wells moving from "confidential" to "active" will be balanced out by old wells being abandoned.

      A corollary to your question is whether monthly state production figures include oil produced by wells on the confidential list. It is my understanding, again, that monthly production figures do not include production from wells on the confidential list. That's a bit more problematic, because it's possible a company could put oil from a confidential list into the system, selling it, and the state would receive royalties, so possibly if the company puts oil into the system while on confidential status, it would be counted in the monthly production figures.

      I will watch for a link. I'm sure the NDIC spells it out at their website among all their documents.

      Delete

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