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 |
CHK?
ReplyDeleteChesapeake has seven (7) wells on the confidential list.
DeleteAlong with Chesapeake, there were another 39 companies with at least one well on the confidential list.
Thanks for the info,
ReplyDeleteBruce; are these 1,700 wells counted in the gross well count of 6600?
ReplyDeleteHave never been clear on this, thanks for any heads up.
I don't know for sure; I think I have seen this issue addressed somewhere, but am unable to find a link.
DeleteHowever, 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.