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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Random Look At Production Of An Older Well When A New Bakken Well Is Completed

From a reader, sent in as a comment in response to my post on 1.5 million-barrel-EUR milestone:
Speaking of milestones, an additional data point that I heard earlier this week was with respect to two Newfield wells, located on the east side of Watford City. Those wells are both middle Bakken wells, and are located only ~600 feet apart. The first well actually started producing more once the second well was fracked. Both appear to be good wells.

It will be fun to watch and see how the Continental Resources experiment turns out where they are going to put 4 wells in a single layer spaced at ~600 feet.
Most likely the reader is talking about these two wells, sited about 265 feet from each other; the horizontals are 105 feet from each other laterally and, from what I can tell, pretty much at the same depth (the horizontal laterals):
  • 19112, 2,526, Newfield, Charlotte 150-98-17-20-1H, Siverston, t11/10; cum 161K 10/12;
  • 21401,1,968, Newfield, Charlotte 150-98-17-20-2H, Siverston, t3/12; cum 84K 10/12;
Vertical depth, but of course, the laterals may be separated vertically more than this, but the vertical depth for the two wells were essentially the same (note: I do not have formal training in reading file reports; these numbers could be off, way off, but this is what I saw).
  • 19112: 11,086 feet
  • 21401: 11,099 feet
If, in fact, the first well started producing more after the second well was fracked, that certainly seems to make sense. I've opined that fracturing is effective 500-feet radially ... and well, you can connect the dots.

So, let's look at the production of #19112 between the months of 10/11 and 10/12 (before and after #21401) was fracked. Now, again, this is the production from the old well.

Read from the bottom up. I assume the well was taken off line 1/12 - 3/12 while the other well was being completed.

19112, 2,526, Newfield, Charlotte 150-98-17-20-1H:

PoolDateDaysBBLS OilRunsBBLS WaterMCF ProdMCF SoldVent/Flare
BAKKEN10-2012285687561623821169611497199
BAKKEN9-2012306916679227181373013329402
BAKKEN8-2012317089725828151315312936218
BAKKEN7-2012317823800632131450213567936
BAKKEN6-2012309891964640171822617711516
BAKKEN5-2012301667516620697533883283525531
BAKKEN4-201223312030970512717593368
BAKKEN3-20124103999012121653111642
BAKKEN2-2012000fracking   first well00
BAKKEN1-20126108310822175715710
BAKKEN12-20111715651689540313631360
BAKKEN11-2011304877546916589146912224
BAKKEN10-2011264483379218387242

Again, I did not know what the production numbers were going to be until I copied and pasted, seeing them in real time, just as you are.

The results are interesting.

I remember folks elsewhere wringing their hands over additional wells being drilled into sections where "their" one well was already producing. Such wringing of hands suggests "we" don't know all there is to know about tight oil/unconventional shale. I certainly don't. But some of this seems to make sense.

******************

In light of the original comment and the stand-alone post, reading through this discussion is entertaining. It is amazing how far we have come. As just one example:  "My belief is that a good separation for laterals is ~ 4,000 feet and a good lateral length should be based on economics." -- posted March 4, 2012.

2 comments:

  1. The two Charlotte wells Sec. 17-150-98 are providing some very interesting data for future well spacing in this area. The surface location for these wells is less than 300 feet apart but the parallel horizontals are about 800 feet apart for the majority of their two mile length. The closest separation is about 700 feet and for a short distance they were separated by about 1200 feet. This would place these two wells on about "180 acre" spacing (i.e. 6 to 7 wells in the same zone of a 1280 acre unit). The original Charlotte produced about 80,000 barrels of oil in its first 7.5 months; the Charlotte 2 produced 84,000 barrels in this length of time. In the seven months since the Charlotte 2 came on line, the Charlotte 1 has produced nearly 60,000 barrels. Together these two closely spaced wells have produced more than 140,000 barrels of oil in the last seven months. Nearby Bakken wells have all averaged between 65,000 and 100,000 barrels in their first 7 months.
    Finally, the drilling logs show both Charlotte wells were targeting the same section of the Middle Bakken. The spacing/fracking of these wells seemed to have improved the production of Charlotte 1 and
    Charlotte 2 is as good or better than the area average.
    Just a mile west of the Charlotte Unit, SM Energy is now fracking five wells in one unit; 3 Middle Bakken and 2 Three Forks. These are all approximately 1300 feet apart in each zone. There
    are two more wells permitted which will join the original well, making a grand total of
    8 wells in this unit. It will be interesting to follow production results with this spacing density.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "The spacing/fracking of these wells seemed to have improved the production of Charlotte 1; and, Charlotte 2 is as good or better than the area average."

      Thank you for taking the time to write such a great comment; you filled in some gaps. Thank you.

      I know it's very simplistic thinking coming from a non-specialist, but it certainly seems like common sense that this might occur. One wonders whether oil men like Harold Hamm were thinking the same thing when the Bakken boom began several years ago.

      Regardless, the Bakken continues to be an interesting "laboratory."

      Delete

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