Bakken Operations
It looks like they are doing more with less. More permits, more drilling, more oil, less rigs. But we're holding steady with 189 rigs. Just for idle chatter: I expect to see a gradual decrease to 175 rigs during the winter, and then after the new Congress gets in place, and folks get a better idea of where things are headed, the rig count will stabilize or go back to 195.
The wells that came off the confidential list today have been posted. Some very, very nice wells.
Comment: last night there was a short exchange in the comments regarding the "wow" factor has not been reached for me regarding the Three Forks. I attributed much of that to the fact that compared to the middle Bakken, not a lot of TF wells have been completed. Today, three very nice Three Forks were reported. In addition, another reader wrote in to remind us of some nice Three Forks completed a year or so ago and are reporting great production.
A permit was canceled:
- 23444, PNC, Hess, EN-Pederson 154-94-0409H-6, Alkali Creek,
Eighteen more permits:
- Operators: BEXP (7), Petro-Hunt (4), KOG (2), Oasis (2), Triangle, Marathon, Strike Oil
- Fields: Kanu (Bottineau), Stony Creek (Williams), Elk (McKenzie), Mondak (McKenzie), Avoca (Williams), Bailey (Dunn), Lucy (Burke), Banks (McKenzie), Eagle Nest (Dunn), Tyrone (Williams)
- 20053, 994, SM Energy, Nelson 15-11H, wildcat, t4/12; cum 60K 8/12; it may be a wildcat, but all for intents and purposes, it's in Siverston oil field; completion data not yet available; background gas ranged as high as 7,000 units; 60K in less than four full months from IP;
- 20899, 2,980, BEXP, Eldridge 29-20 1TFH, Briar Creek, t8/12; cum 8K 8/12; this is about as far west in North Dakota as you can get before you are in Montana; south of the river, just west of the confluence; this is a huge well for this area!
- 22021, 1,135, BEXP, Bill 14-23 2TFH, Alexander, t8/12; cum 6K 8/12;
- 22036, 1,904, BEXP, Strobeck 27-34 4H, Alger, t8/12; cum 6K 8/12;
- 22078, 92, Hess, AV-Wrigley Brothers -164-94-3130H-1, Forthun, t9/12; cum 1,396 bbls 8/12;
- 22854, 888, Whiting, Estvold 44-26TFH, Sanish, t8/12; cum 5K 8/12;
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"Interestingly enough, in Spanish there's really no word for wilderness. The notion here (in Mexico) is, nature has to pay its own way or there is no justification for its existence."CRC, who comments regularly on this blog, understands exactly what that means, I assume.
That statement was made by the wife of Mexico's leading environmentalist, Homero Aridjis, Betty Aridjis. -- The Eye of the Whale, Dick Russell, p. 73,
Any chance the EN-Pederson being canceled for the 1 well means they plan on putting a pad on the south end of the section (or elsewhere) and putting 5 more there since the hearings last month changed all of Alkali Creek to 10 wells per 1280 spacing?
ReplyDeleteGreat thought. It seems canceled permits in the Bakken don't mean a whole; they are canceled for reasons just as you suggest.
DeleteI think it is important to point out that a couple of these great wells are Three Forks Wells. I don't think we are at a point that the Three Forks is a "given" in all areas of the Bakken proved by direct drilling results. But now we are starting to see if this could be true. It is exciting to see how this formation is beginning to play out.
ReplyDeleteIt was not too long ago that this formation was presented by many operators as an additional possible producing zone and finally we are getting the proof.
I would love to know what the operator's know. I believe they know about even more zones but are holding this close to the chest. Very exciting!
You are absolutely correct: some areas of the Basin, the Three Forks is very, very good; other areas, not so good.
DeleteRegardless of what the operators know (and I agree with you, they know a whole lot more than they are talking about), it is all about management of their reserves.
Just an idle comment but I can say I am proud to have been one of the geologists on that great Eldridge well :) It is pretty cool to see how the wells turn out after working on them.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I don't say it often enough, but I am really impressed with how good you guys are -- the whole team. Drilling down two miles, hitting the seam; going laterally two miles horizontally, in and out of the seam. And then waiting to see if the frac crews can bring it home. I can only imagine how involved this whole endeavor is. Thank you for taking time to write.
DeleteI haven't read enough file reports to get to "know" the geologists, but I always enjoy reading them.
So, I know I am behind the curve so I hope you will excuse that.
ReplyDeleteI have not had the time to do a proper check but it seems to me the majority of the Three Forks Wells that have been drilled and results posted are in the Sanish area and sprinkled around the others to some degree. Some areas have very limited results to date. So, if and when you get time could you give your opinion of where the Three Forks may be Good to very Good and where it May be not so good? Of course I understand that the Three Forks formation extends way beyond the Bakken but do you think these Grades (poor, good and very good) mirror the Bakken formation? I have a feeling it may not, but I have only been watching the Bakken since 2006 so what do I know.
So far, based on the little I've seen, I agree with you: the Three Forks has not yet "wowed" me, yet.
DeleteThe problem is that comparatively speaking, there have been a lot fewer Three Forks wells drilled. The other problem is that the Three Forks "sweet spots" may not be in the same areas as the Bakken sweet spots.
The other problem is that almost all of the wells are described as coming from the Bakken pool (which includes the Three Forks) and unless one reads the well files, one may miss some Three Forks wells, thinking they are middle Bakken wells.
But I'm as interested as you in seeing if the Three Forks lives up to the hype; hopefully it will. The same goes for the Tyler.
It really is a team effort and if you get a chance to look at the geologic summary of the Eldridge you will see that we had some issues and it still turned out great. I was also on a few other wells nearby so it will be interesting to see how they turn out. Actually did one just across the border in MT too. It was cool driving under Snowden Bridge to get to work, I am sure you remember that little guy that crosses the Missouri! Really neat bridge and area to visit.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to read the file report, thank you.
DeleteYes, I know the Snowden bridge very, very well. I think in my original blog I actually wrote about it.
I've actually canoed from south of the confluence up north to Fort Union/Fort Buford area. My brother put us in the canoe south of the confluence and then met us up at the "park." Good memories.
For what it's worth.
ReplyDeleteCLR drilled its first TF well Bice 1-29H in Dunn County in 2008. Since then they have drilled a number of TF wells in the same area.
Clover 1-3H couple miles SE of the Bice well has produced 201,168 barrels from TF since 2/9/10
Clover 3-10H is on an eco pad and last month was first full month of production produced 29,816 barrels. Its sister MB well Clover 2-10H produced 27,695 in August also.
About 6 miles NW of the Bice well the Carson Peak 3-35H completed in the TF on an eco pad has produced 227,852 since 5/14/11. Its sister MB well has produced 303,977 during the same time.
Thank you for taking the time to remind me of some great Three Forks wells. I was unaware of how much production some of these wells have had. These really are amazing numbers: it took 20 to 30 years for Madison wells to hit these numbers.
DeleteTook some more time to do some in depth search of Continental's effort to develop the TF in the Killdeer area. From west of Killdeer (Roadrunner) to the North Killdeer Mountains a swath about 4 or 5 miles wide I found 26 wells producing from the TF.
ReplyDeleteContinental Three Forks Well Production Through August 2012
From west of Killdeer to North Killdeer Mountains
Well Cum Comp
Number Name IP Production Date
16943 BICE 1-29H 516.00 121,257.00 5/9/2008
17153 SKACHENKO 1-31H 456.00 111,800.00 11/20/2008
17201 MITTLESTADT 1-20H 956.00 165,118.00 11/2/2008
17211 Gale 1-32H 240.00 91,431.00 8/16/2008
17372 DOLEZAL 1-5H 426.00 95,762.00 8/27/2009
17398 Kukla 1-21H 603.00 247,500.00 5/18/2009
18351 CLOVER 1-3H 1,125.00 201,168.00 2/9/2010
17530 Hartman 1-28H 780.00 157,777.00 8/11/2010
18636 Bang 2-33T 633.00 106,078.00 4/26/2010
18796 Roadrunner 1-15H 761.00 155,030.00 8/13/2010
18859 Carson Peak 3-35H 680.00 274,945.00 4/10/2011
18860 Morris 2-26H 517.00 127,687.00 4/7/2011
19012 BONNEVILLE 2-23H 365.00 82,290.00 12/5/2010
19013 BRIDGER 2-14H 399.00 97,682.00 12/4/2010
19020 MEADOWLARK 3-6H 744.00 60,921.00 4/24/2011
19023 SKACHENKO 2-31H 726.00 76,845.00 4/24/2011
19156 Brandvik 2-25H 282.00 162,272.00 10/1/2010
19968 PLETAN 2-18H 757.00 107,378.00 7/18/2011
20208 Hawkinson 2-27H 960.00 166,619.00 9/7/2011
20212 Whitman 3-34H 482.00 64,165.00 9/6/2011
20547 Kukla 2-16H 744.00 45,108.00 3/8/2012
20548 Candee 2-29H 356.00 55,313.00 3/28/2012
20806 Dvirnak 2-7H 744.00 85,606.00 11/21/2011
20809 Pletan 4-18H 1,294.00 65,939.00 11/18/2011
21583 Roadrunner 3-15H 1,087.00 20,140.00 6/26/2012
21584 Clover 3-10H 1,081.00 39,139.00 6/26/2012
2,984,970.00
Just short of 3 million barrels.
On a side note go to the Mittlestat 1-20H (17201) well file and you can see that for 7 months prior to June the well did not exceed 2,000 barrels per month. 30 days in June 1,771 then Wow,,,, 31 days in July 12,548 then 31 days in August 6,997.
No indication of any down time for clean out or refrac therefore the only thing it appears to me going on the area was the completion of the (21569) Mittlestat 2-20H which comes off confidential this week. Somehow the frac job from he second well must have stimulated the first well. Without plugging it from migrating sand.
I am now curious to see if the second well might be a lower bench TF well. Across the gravel road to the south is the Bice 1-29H and the 2-29H. The second Bice well was drilled into the MB and maybe had some impact on production from the first but I don't think very much, not 6 or 7 fold. It was shut down during the completion and frac of Bice 2 to do some testing for communicaiton between formations.
An incredible amount of work went into that, finding the Three Forks wells. Thank you.
DeleteI have re-posted what you sent in as as stand-alone post to make it easier for folks to find. I've also a new tag: ThreeForks_Production.
http://www.milliondollarwayblog.com/2012/10/a-reader-sent-following-information-in.html
Thank you very much for being willing to share this information.