12/14/12: Official Turning Point; Fifteen (15) New Permits -- The Williston Basin; KOG With 11 Wells All In One Spacing Unit; BEXP With Four (4) Gushers; BR With A Huge Iron Horse

Bakken Operations

Official Turning Point -- 12/14/12 -- from the exploration phase to the manufacturing phase in the Bakken.

There has been quite a bit of talk this past year that the Bakken had entered the "manufacturing phase." I was not ready to accept that. Permitting was still generally one permit at a time in any given section, with some up to four permits per section, on average. (That's not well said, but regular readers will know what I'm trying to say.) There were some exceptions (e.g., in the Sanish and the Parshall) but in other oil fields, if sections had more than a few wells,, those wells had been permitted one or two at a time. (Yes, there were exceptions, such as the Eco-Pads.) But the new KOG permitting today (see below) and the huge IPs of the completed producing wells, and a few other data points, lead me to conclude that 12/14/12 is the "official" turning point in the Bakken --> to the manufacturing phase. On top of that, another Whiting permit for a Red River well. And fifteen new permits: it's hard to top this daily activity report. 

Active rigs: 181 (back down to intra-boom low)

Fifteen new permits --

• Operators: KOG (8), QEP (3), Whiting (2), Oasis (2)
• Fields: Truax, Camp, Grail, Dickinson, Delhi
• Comments: This is a very interesting group of permits -- the Truax is in the sweet spot of the Bakken, as are Camp and Grail (QEP bought Helis that had huge wells in the Grail); and Delhi abuts Hoot Owl, which if readers remember: Hoot Owl --> Whiting --> Red River

Wells coming off confidential list were reported earlier; see sidebar at the right.

Producing wells completed:

• 22711, 2,599, BEXP, Alger State 16-21 3H, Alger, t11/12; cum --
• 22713, 2,114, BEXP, Alger State 16-21 4TFH, Alger, t11/12; cum --
• 22645, 1,225, BEXP, Jerome Anderson 10-15 3TFH, Alger, t11/12; cum --
• 22672, 548, G3 Operating, Pederson 1-18-19H, Little Muddy, t10/12; cum 3K 10/12;
• 22695, 2,042, BEXP, Ross-Alger 6-7 4TFH, Alger, t11/12; cum --
• 22754, 2,324, BR, Iron Horse 31-2TFH, Union Center, t11/12; cum --
• 22328, 927, Zavanna, James 41-3SH, Poe, t10/12; cum 3K 10/12;

With regard to the eight new KOG permits: all eight are in the same section - 27-154-98. There are already three other wells in this section, all on confidential status, which means that there will be eleven (11) wells sited in this section. So, these are the permits for this section:

• 24374, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-3-27-34-14H, Truax,
• 24375, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-3-27-34-14H3, Truax,
• 24376, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-3-27-34-15H, Truax,
• 24604, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-4-27-34-13HB, Truax,
• 24605, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-4-27-34-13H3, Truax,
• 24606, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-4-27-34-13HA, Truax,
• 24607, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-4-27-34-14H3, Truax,
• 24608, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-2-27-34-15H, Truax,
• 24609, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-2-27-34-16H3, Truax,
• 24610, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-2-27-34-16H, Truax,
• 24611, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-2-27-34-16H3A, Truax,

And note that all eleven (11) wells will be long laterals running south into section 34.

There are two wells (coming from the other direction), running south to north, in the spacing unit directly to the west of this 11-well spacing unit:

• 21822, 3,000, KOG, Thomas 154-98-15-33-28-2H, Truax, t5/12; cum 109K 10/12;
• 22338, 2,425, KOG, Thomas 154-98-15-33-28-28-1H3, Truax, t5/12; cum 76K 10/12;

On top of all this, there are five (5) rigs currently drilling in Truax oil field. 

I don't want to sound too excited, but this is huge. This will be, to say the least, very, very interesting to follow.