Skoal! -- Some Huge Wells; BR Reports Six Nice Wells; Thirteen (13) New Permits Issued; 203 Active Rigs Drilling in North Dakota

For all the talk of the decline in active rigs, and all the talk of the boom leveling off, I see we still have 203 active rigs in North Dakota. Assuming a handful of the "record" number of rigs are just across the line in Montana, this is not yet a dramatic decline.

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Earlier today, I posted the wells that came of the confidential list.

Here are additional wells, the producing wells that were completed:

• 21782, 383, ERF, Hippo 148-94-03A-10-4H TF, McGregory Buttes; t7/12; cum 408 bbls 6/12; Dunn
• 21784, 5,599 (no typo), ERF, Lion 149-93-31A-30-2H TF, Mandaree; Dunn; cannot confirm IP at well file; not scanned in yet;
• 21783, 831, ERF, Rhino 148-94-03A-10-3H, McGregory Buttes, Dunn
• 20082, 1,683, BR, Intervale 31-35H, Murphy Creek, Dunn
• 20323, 3,325, BR, Midnight Run 11-1MBH, Union Center, McKenzie,
• 20435, 1,545, BR, 1,545, Scott 21-36MBH, Murphy Creek, Dunn,
• 20812, 1,884, BR, Hammerhead 31-26MBH, Sand Creek, McKenzie
• 20817, 1,603, BR, Conner 34-9H, Haystack Butte, McKenzie,
• 21058, 1,128, BR, Logan 24-8H, Haystack Butte, McKenzie

The following wells will come the confidential list tomorrow, Thursday:

• 20466, 1,944, Whiting, Sprague 41-12TFH, Sanish, t2/12; cum 67K 6/12;
• 21091, 499, QEP, MHA-1-05-06H-149-90, Deep Water Creek Bay, t7/12; cum ---
• 21465, 1,907, Helis, TAT 15-33/28H, Grail, t5/12; cum 56K 6/12;
• 22145, 844, Hess, LK-Bice-147-96-0621H-3, Big Gulch, t6/12; cum 29K 6/12; 
• 22255, drl, Samson Resources, Longhorn 9-4-158-99H, Ellisville, s2/12;

Whiting recently discussed how good the TFS was compared to the Bakken and used one of the Sprague wells as an example. The Sprague well above, runs: February - 13K; March - 21K; April - 11K; May 13K; June 9K. All along there has been chatter that the TFS could produce better wells than the middle Bakken, albeit perhaps not as many due to "size" of the formation.

Helis reports another great Grail oil field well.

Maybe I'm just a bit inappropriately exuberant, but even if ERF's Lion is a mistake, there are a lot of nice wells being reported. (See comments: "they" say this IP is accurate.)

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Thirteen (13) new permits issued today:

• Operators: Oasis (4), SM Energy (3), Whiting (2), Liberty Resources (2), CLR, Liberty Resources (2), Slawson
• Fields: Poe (McKenzie), Alger (Mountrail), Sanish (Mountrail), Willow Creek (Williams), Last Chance (Williams), Camel Hump (Golden Valley), North Tobacco Garden (McKenzie)

Liberty Resources has permits for two wildcats, both in McKenzie County. It's hard to call them "true" wildcats. They are in the heart of the Bakken, just south of Alexander.

For newbies, I generally expect to see five to eight new permits issued each day; when it gets into double digits, it's quite extraordinary. Thirteen (13) is a fairly remarkable number of new permits.

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All in all, I would say this is a pretty good day for the Bakken. And, the price of oil edged up another dollar, or thereabouts.