First, remember this story posted earlier today: Turkey hunter with mixed feelings about oil activity in his backyard? Without more specifics, it's hard to say exactly how many rigs and/or wells are in his backyard/hunting grounds, but here are some data points:
- the Corral Creek field is 60 sections big
- a section is a mile square, so this field would be the equivalent of 5 x 12 miles, or 6 x 10 miles
- there are currently two rigs in this 60-square mile area
- one could drive a lot of miles before seeing a rig in this area (60 square miles, two rigs)
- the number of existing permits/wells in this field works out to about 1 well for every two-section spacing unit; a few of these wells have not even been drilled yet;
- seventeen sections on the north side of the field have no wells or even any permits yet; no change in a huge part of this field yet (at least, not due to the oil industry)
- so, you sort of get the idea of how active the field is at this point in time (not very, compared to let's say, the Brooklyn)
- there are no less than twelve (12) wells sited on this one section; drilled during an earlier period of activity (in comparison: there are almost no "Bakken" sections with twelve wells yet; some with that many permits, but very few with 12 wells drilled)
- in addition, there is a thirteenth well -- a horizontal -- running under this section (16-161-79)
- six (6) wells sited in this section are still active
- to the best of my knowledge, I am unaware of any concern with all the oil activity in this field
- to the best of my knowledge, this section is doing fine -- but I have not been there, and I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any media reporting regarding the six wells that are still producing in this section causing any problems
- so, we have a section with 12 sited wells and a 13th horizontal below the surface....
By the way, some of those 12 -13 wells in that section, all Spearfish wells:
- 1656, 24, Enduro Operating, Newburg-Spearfish-Charles Unit N-710, t4/58; cum 638K 10/12;
- 1948, 30, Enduro Operating, Newburg-Spearfish-Charles Unit - P710, t8/58; cum 380K 10/12;
- 2079, 33, Enduro Operating, Newburg-Spearfish-Charles Unit M-711, t11/58, cum 810K 10/12;
- 7727, 57, Enduro Operating, Newburg-Spearfish-Charles Unit O-712, t12/80; cum 213K 10/12;
- 7728, 11, Enduro Operating, Newburg-Spearfish-Charles Unit P-713, t11/80; cum 235K 10/12;
- 7729, 3, Hess, Newburg-Spearfish-Charles Unit N-713, t11/80; cum 47K 11/80;
- 16712, 17, Enduro Operating, NSCU P-715AH, t10/07; cum 27K 10/12;
- 16745, 40, Enduro Operating, NSCU M-711AH, t10/07; cum 55K 10/12;
Just after posting the stand-alone post above a few minutes ago, I received the following comment to the earlier post. I just now saw the following comment.
ReplyDeleteThis comment says it better than I said it, and in a lot fewer words:
The comment that I received regarding Corral Creek: "I drive the CCU road almost daily as the mud engineer that handles the rigs drilling in the CCU and there are more turkeys and deer in this area than in any of the other areas of western ND that I drive. I think COP is doing a good job in the area and the wildlife is as strong as ever!"
I found the article disingenuous. I live in the Twin Cities and the deer and turkeys here border on fearless. This Tribune reporter sure sounded like he/she had an ax to grind. OTOH, I can understand landowners feeling like one thing has been approved, and then the oil companies do another thing. That sounds like a reasonable objection to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, up to a point. Can't argue. Just my perspective, and everyone is entitled to an opinion.
DeleteA couple of things. Based on comments I get from folks suggests to me that folks really, really do not understand what is going on in the Bakken. As closely as I follow it, I bet I understand 1% of all that goes on, if that much. One percent. Go over to the Bakken Shale Discussion Group and you will get an idea of how little "we" know.
Second, many, many years ago, I was taught "sales" by an incredibly good publishing company. One of the things I was taught was this: folks hear a third of what you tell them. One needs to be told three times some things before it sinks in.
Third: folks tend not to pay attention to a lot of things until it affects them directly.
My hunch is that if one re-read the minutes of all the proceedings, and the contracts that have been signed, things are "legit" and were spelled out. I do know that when I first started blogging about the Bakken, most of "us" thought we would only see one well/section. No one outside the industry ever imagined 14 wells on one spacing unit. And that's just the Bakken; there are a lot of other payzones in these same spacing units.
It's not a matter of oil companies saying one thing, doing another, it's misunderstanding/not understanding "the stuff" to begin with.
Other issues apply but too long for comment section. Bottom line: in this particular case, I think folks are exaggerating concerns: two rigs in sixty square miles; that's incredibly quiet compared to much of the Bakken. Look at the Parshall, the Sanish, the Brooklyn. Everything I've read about Corral Creek suggests the oil industry and the NDIC are trying to do the best they can under very challenging conditions.
My nomination for the section (640 acres) with the greatest well density is section 23-163-83 in the Haas Field of western Bottineau County.
DeleteSince 1961 there has been a total of 25 wells drilled in section 23.
All have been drilled to the same zone, the Glenburn interval of the Madison formation.
In the 1960's thru 1980's a total of 19 vertical wells were drilled; all but one produced oil. Beginning in the mid 1990's and early 2000's, 6 horizontal wells were drilled within the section along with two wells in adjoining sections which had major portions of their horizontals under section 23.
In addition to this, several of the horizontals had two legs on their laterals for a grand total of 14 legs producing oil from this one section and all from the Madison Glenburn zone.
To date this one secton has produced between 4 and 5 million barrels of oil. The southeast quarter (160 acres) has made about 3 million barrels of oil with 7 wells continuing to produce. Out of the 27 wells of this section, 18 are still producing.
One of the original wells in the southeast corner of this section produced about 750,000 barrels of oil before it was converted to an injection well.
The total production from the Haas Field is some over 10 million barrels of oil. The production depth is 4000 feet and the pay zone is about 60 feet thick in the middle of the field.
Great post. Thank you. I also moved it to a stand-alone post for those who may not see the comments. Thank you for taking the time to write such a full note about well density in this section. It certainly helps put things into perspective.
Delete