Friday, May 4, 2012

G3 Operating: 672 Wells

I may be misreading this, or I may have miscounted, but from the NDIC dockets for May, 2012:
17853, G3 Operating, Climax and/or Strandahl-Bakken, or the Good Luck Field, establish 12 640-acre units; 84 1280-acre units, 7 wells on each 640-acre unit and 7 wells on each 1280-acre units; 672 wells total; (if I counted correctly); Williams County;
I'll go back and look at this later, along with several other interesting cases. 

ABC Looking For Photos/Videos of Women Working in Oil Industry

Link here.

Makes me think of Rosie the Riverter.

I will be very disappointed if the young woman from Mexico City, now working for Statoil/BEXP, is not featured.

Williston Wal-Mart Selling Housing Units -- This Is The Only Wal-Mart in the Known Universe to Be Selling Housing Units

Updates

May 5, 2012: See comments. Someone pointed out that these units have no windows. I have to agree; a huge negative. But wrong. [Note comment: the units do indeed have windows.]

I wonder how these Wal-Mart units compete with pick-up truck RV campers?  For $24,000 one can buy a pretty nice RV camper for a pick-up track. I could imagine owning a nice home in Grand Forks, Fargo, Bismarck, Billings, Rapid City, etc,  but living in the RV for three weeks on, one week off type of schedule. One has to remember my background: 30-year military and an RV camper looks pretty nice compared to the tents in "Tent City," Incirlik Air Base, Turkey.

Original Post
Portable Vec Housing Units.

These $24,000 units are now being sold by Wal-Mart in Williston -- the only Wal-Mart in the world to be selling these units.

A huge "thank you" to Dennis to sending me the story. This is the link to the photo/story in the Williston Herald. I would love to know the wholesale cost of these housing units vs the "trailers" provided by FEMA. Something tells me ....

NDIC Hearing Dockets -- May, 2012

This is a summary of the dockets for my own personal use, so abbreviations, summaries, etc.,  may not make sense to others. Typos are likely. Go to NDIC website for original source. The purpose is to provide me a "feeling" of where the Bakken is headed.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

17762, Whiting/CLR, proper spacing for Twin Valley-Bakken, McKenzie County
17763, Whiting, temporary spacing for Cymbaluk 21-25TFH, Billings County
17764, Whiting, extend Dollar Joe by 2 sections; 4 wells on the spacing unit; Williams County
17765, Whiting, Buckhorn-Bakken, establish 3 1280-acre units; 4 wells each; Billings County
17766, Whiting, establish 7 1280-acre units; 1 well each; Bakken; Golden Valley County (Big Island?);
17767, Whiting, Roosevelt-Bakken, establish 1 1280-acre unit; 4 wells; Billings County
17768, Whiting, St Anthony Field; add 2 1280-acre units; 4 wells each; Dunn County
17769, Whiting, Bell-Bakken, 4 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; eliminating the 1220-foot setback policy; Stark County
17770, several companies, Glass Bluff-Bakken; property spacing, McKenzie County
17358, cont'd, Murex, temporary spacing, Reistad 1-1R, Divide County
17771, Petro-Hunt, Kittleson Slough, add 1 1280-acre unit; 5 wells; Mountrail County
17772, Petro-Hunt, revoke an XTO permit
15676, cont'd, XTO, revoke a CLR permit
16125, cont'd, XTO, revoke a CLR permit
17773, Hess, temporary spacing for Osborn 163-93 0508H-1, Burke County
17774, Hess, Ray Field, add 1 1280-acre unit; 4 wells; Williams County
17775, Hess, eliminate the 1220-foot setback for a specific horizontal well, Truax-Bakken
17434, cont'd, Hess, Manitou-Bakken; add 1 640-acre unit; 6 wells; Mountrail;
14935, Hess, revoke a CLR permit
17776, MRO, temporary spacing for the Merlyn Olson 34-8H, Williams
17777, MRO, Twin Buttes-Bakken; establish 10 1280-acre units; 4 wells each; total 40 wells; Dunn
17778, BR, temporary spacing for Red Wing 16-1H, McKenzie County
17779, OXY USA, temporary spacing for Spring Creek 1-20-141-93, Dunn County
17780, SM Energy, Ambrose-Bakken, 4 wells on each of 5 1280-acre units; 20 wells; Divide Co
17781, SM Energy, Siverston-Bakken, establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit, 1 or more wells; and, 2 wells on each of 2 existing 1280-acre units, McKenzie
17359, cont'd, SM Energy, temporary spacing for Tomlinson 3-1H, Divide County
17437, cont'd, temporary spacing for Nelson 15-11H, McKenzie County
17782, Oasis, Cottonwood-Bakken, establish 2 1280-acre unit; 6 wells each, Mountrail County
17783, True Oil, Buffalo Wallow-Bakken and Trailside-Bakken, establish 2 1360-acre units; establish 2 1280-acre units; 4 wells on each unit; McKenzie County
17784, KOG, Moccasin Creek-Bakken, designate a 1280-acre unit; 6 wells; Dunn County
17785, KOG, Twin Buttes-Bakken, designate 1 2560-acre unit, and 3 1280 acre units; 6 wells on some of the units; 4 wells on other units including the 2560-acre unit
17786, Sequel, Stoneview-Madison, open-end request to drill wells; Williams, Divide
17787, Marquis Alliance, waste processing facility, Mountrail County
17585, cont'd, Clean Fluid Solutions, treatment of drilling fluids, Dunn County
17788, Oasis, flaring
17789, Oasis, Sorkness-Bakken, 6 wells on 4 existing 1280-acre units; Mountrail County
17790, Oasis, Bonetrail-Bakken, 6 wells on 5 existing 1280-acre units; Williams County
17791, Oasis, Sanish-Bakken, 6 wells on an existing 640-acre unit; Mountrail County
17792, Oasis, Camp-Bakken, 6 wells on 3 existing 1280-acre units; McKenzie County
17793, Oasis, Willow Creek-Bakken; 6 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit, McKenzie/Wms
17794, Petro-Hunt, pooling
17795, Petro-Hunt, Stockyard Creek-Bakken, 5 wells on a 640-acre unit; Williams County
17796 - 17807, Hess, pooling
17808, Hess, Midway-Bakken, 6 wells on 2 existing 1280-acre units, Williams County
17809, Hess, Dollar Joe-Bakken, 6 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; Williams County
17810 - 17815, Whiting, pooling
17816, Whiting, Alger-Bakken, 6 wells on an existing 640-acre unit; Mountrail County
17817, SM Energy, pooling
17818, SM Energy, Camp-Bakken, 8 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; McKenzie County
17819, SM Energy, Poe-Bakken, 8 wells on each of 2 existing 1280-acre units; McKenzie County
17820, True Oil, pooling
17821, MRO, commingling
16958, cont'd, OXY USA, salt water disposal
17822, Sakakawea Ventures, salt water disposal
17823, 1HD Solids Management, salt water disposal
17824, 1HD Solids Management, salt water disposal
17825, 1HD Solids Management, salt water disposal
17826, Paul Rankin, salt water disposal conversion
17827, SBG, salt water disposal
17828, Moxie, salt water disposal
17829, Mann, salt water disposal

Thursday, May 31, 2012

17830, QEP, Heart Butte-Bakken,  a) convert 2 640-acre units to 1 1280-acre unit; 2 wells; b) modify a 1280-acre unit from allowing up to 7 wells to allowing 2 wells; c) creating 1 overlapping 2560-acre unit, allowing up to 12 wells;
17372, cont'd, CLR, revoke a Liberty Resources permit (Jackman 156-100-11-2-1H, Williams Co
17212, cont'd, Liberty Resources, revoke a Zenergy permit, McKenzie County
17831, Liberty Resources, temporary spacing for Fritz 150-101-32-29-1H, McKenzie County
17832, Samson Resources, rules for developing Fillmore-Bakken, Divide County
17833, Crescent Point, temporary spacing for CPEUSC Burgess 14-23-158N-100W, Williams
17834, Samson Resources, temporary spacing for Pheasant 14-23-163-96H, Divide County
17835, BEXP, temporary spacing for Safely Trust 28033 1H, McKenzie County
17836, BEXP, complete Panzer 22-23-2TFH; Mountrail County
17837, Zenergy, temporary spacing for Martin 16-21H, Williams County
17838, Zenergy, Foreman Butte-Bakken, establish 16 new 1280-acre units; 8 wells each; 128 wells; McKenzie;
17839, CLR, temporary spacing for Kostelecky 1-1H, Billings County
17840, CLR, Little Knife-Bakken or Blacktail, establish 4 1280-acre units; 7 wells each; Billings
17841, CLR, Sauk-Bakken, create an overlapping 2560-acre unit; multiple wells; Williams
17842, CLR, Border and Stoneview-Bakken; create an overlapping 2560-acre unit; multiple wells; Divide
17843, CLR, Brooklyn-Bakken, alter the definition of the stratigraphic limits of the pool, Williams
17844, CLR, allow completion of a well that accidentally violated setback rules, Burke County
17845, CLR, allow completion of a well that accidentally violated setback rules, Burke County
17846, CLR, revoke a Petro-Hunt permit, Williams County
15224, cont'd, CLR, revoke a Hess permit, McKenzie County
17557, cont'd, CLR, Antelope-Sanish, create a 1280-acre unit; 1 well; McKenzie County
17562, cont'd, CLR, Baker and Indian Hill-Bakken, create an overlapping 2560-acre unit; multiple wells; McKenzie County
17563, cont'd, CLR, Indian Hill-Bakken, create a 2560-acre unit; multiple wells; McKenzie/Wms
17565, cont'd, CLR, Squires-Bakken, create an overlapping 2560-acre unit; multiple wells; Wms
17566, cont'd, CLR, Hebron-Bakken, create an overlapping 1280-acre unit; create 2 overlapping 2560-acre units; create an overlapping 2240-acre unit; multiple wells from each; Williams Co
17567, cont'd, CLR, Camp-Bakken, create an overlapping 2560-acre unit; multiple wells; McKenzie
17568, cont'd, CLR, Crazy Man Creek-Bakken, create an overlapping 2560-acre unit; and, create an overlapping 2880-acre unit; multiple wells; McKenzie, Williams Counties
17569, cont'd, CLR, Banks-Bakken, create 3 overlapping 2560-acre units, multiple wells, McK/Wms
17847, GMXR, Four Eyes or St Demetrius-Bakken, or Blacktail Field, create a 1280-acre unit, 1 well, Billings County
17848, Baytex, flaring violation
17849, Baytex, flaring violation
17850, EOG, Van Hook and/or Parshall-Bakken, establish 3 overlapping 1280-acre units; and, create 3 overlapping 1920-acre units; 2 wells on each; Mountrail
17851, EOG, Antelope-Sanish, Hawkeye, or Clarks Creek-Bakken, create a 640-acre unit, 3 wells; McKenzie
17852, Newfield, Westberg-Bakken, establish an overlapping 1280-acre unit; 7 wells; McKenzie
17853, G3 Operating, Climax and/or Strandahl-Bakken, or the Good Luck Field, establish 12 640-acre units; 84 1280-acre units, 7 wells on each 640-acre unit and 7 wells on each 1280-acre units; 672 wells total; (if I counted correctly); Williams County;
17854, Slawson, complete Magnum 2-36-25H, McKenzie County
17855, Slawson, Squaw Gap-Bakken, establish 4 640-acre units; 2 wells each; McKenzie
17856, Slawson, Poker Jim-Bakken, establish a 640-acre unit, 1 well; McKenzie
17549, cont'd, Slawson, temporary spacing for Condor 1-36-25H, McKenzie
17857, WPX, Reunion Bay-Bakken, establish a 640-acre unit; 1 well; Mountrail
17858, CCS Midstream, treating plant, McKenzie
17859, Missouri Basin Well, treating plant, Stark County
17860, commission to consider whether a bond required
17548, cont'd, Fidelity, temporary spacing for Wanner 44-23H, Stark County
17551, cont'd, Petro Uno Resources, temporary spacing for Beta Race Federal 22-6, Billings
17577, cont'd, Hunt, Buffalo Wallow-Bakken, establish 2 1280-acre units; 1 well each; McKenzie
17187, cont'd, Chesapeake, temporary spacing for Zent 30-138-95 1H, Stark County
15737, cont'd, Legacy Oil, temporary spacing for Legacy Etal Fett 12-18 1H, other wells, Bottineau
16425, cont'd, Zavanna, temporary spacing for Koufax 3-10, McKenzie County
17588, cont'd, GADECO, complete Golden 25-13H, Williams
17530, cont'd, Davis, risk penalty legalese, Mountrail
17531, cont'd, Davis, risk penalty legalese, Mountrail
17861, Zenergy, Painted Woods-Bakken; 8 wells on 4 existing 1280-acre units; 32 wells; Williams
17862, Zenergy, Painted Woods-Bakken; 8 wells on an existing 960-are unit; Williams County
17863, Zenergy, Banks-Bakken, 8 wells, each 11 existing 1280-acre units; 88 wells; McKenzie
17864, Zenergy, Elidah-Bakken, 8 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; McKenzie County
17865, Zenergy, Siverston-Bakken, 8 wells, each 5 existing 1280-acre units; 40 wells; McKenzie
17866, Zenergy, Foreman Butte-Bakken, 8 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; McKenzie County
17867, Zenergy, Eightmile-Bakken, 8 wells, each 3 existing 1280-acre units; 24 wells; McKenz/Wms
17868, Zenergy, Marmon-Bakken, 8 wells, each 3 existing 1280-acre units; 24 wells; William
17869, Zenergy, Assiniboine-Bakken, 8 wells, eac 3 exisitng 1280-acre units; 24 wells; McKenzie
17870, Zenergy, Cow Creek-Bakken, 8 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; Williams County
17871, Zenergy, Elk-Bakken, 8 wells, each  2 existing 1280-acre units; 16 wells, McKenzie
17872, Zenergy, Nohly Lake-Bakken, 8 wells, each 2 existing 1280-acre units; 16 wells, McKenzie
17873, Zenergy, Lake Trenton-Bakken, 8 wells, each 3 existing 1280-acre units; 24 wells; Williams
17874, Zenergy, Indian Hill-Bakken, 8 wells, each 2 existing 1280-acre units; 16 wells; McKenzie
17875, Zenergy, Glass Bluff-Bakken, 8 wells on 2 existing 1280-acre units; 16 wells; McKenzie
17876, Zenergy, Ft Buford-Bakken, 8 wells on 2 existing 1280-acre units; 16 wells; Williams
17877, Zenergy, Dore-Bakken, 8 wells on 3 existing 1280-acre units; 24 wells; McKenzie
17878, Zenergy, Todd-Bakken, 8 wells on 2 existing 1280-acre units; 16 wells; Williams, McKenzie
17879, Zenergy, Squires-Bakken, 8 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; Williams
17880, Zenergy, Dublin-Bakken, 8 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; Williams
17881, Zenergy, Rosebud-Bakken, a) 8 wells on an existing 960-acre unit; 8 wells on 3 existing 1280-acre units; 32 wells; Williams
17882, Baytex, risk penalty legalese, Dividee
17883, Baytex, flaring
17884, Baytex, flaring
17885, Baytex, flaring
17886, Baytex, flaring
17887, Hunt, risk penalty legalese
17888, Hunt, risk penalty legalese
17889, Samson Resourcs, risk penalty legalese
17890, Samson Resources, risk penalty legalese
17891 - 17921, Samson Resources, pooling (about 30 wells)
17922, Samson Resources, Candak-Bakken, 7 wells on an existing 800-acre unit; Divide
17923, Samson Resources, Ambrose-Bakken, 7 wells on an existing 800-acre unit; Divide
17924, Samson Resources, West Ambrose-Bakken, 7 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; Divide;
17925, Fidelity, risk penalty legalese
17926, Fidelity, risk penalty legalese
17927, Fidelity, pooling
17928 - 17951, CLR, pooling (about 25 wells)
17952, CLR, Charlie Bob-Bakken, 7 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit, McKenzie
17953, CLR, Stoneview-Bakken, 8 wells each, 3 existing overlapping 2560-acre units;  24 wells; Divide, Williams
17954, CLR, Sauk-Bakken, 8 wells on an existing overlapping 2560-acre unit; Williams
17955, CLR, Glade-Bakken, 7 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; Billings County
17956, CLR, Hamlet-Bakken, 10 wells on an existing overlapping 2560-acre unit; Divide, Wms
17957, CLR, Pleasant Valley-Bakken, 7 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; Williams County
17220, cont'd, CLR risk penalty legalese
17958 - 17977, Enerplus, pooling (about 20 wells)
17978, Denbury, pooling
17979, BEXP, pooling
17980 - 17983, BEXP, flaring
17984, BEXP, Cow Creek-Bakken, 8 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; Williams
17985, BEXP, Todd-Bakken, 8 wells, each existing 1280-acre unit in zones I and II, McKenzie/Wms
17986, BEXP, Alexander-Bakken, 8 wells on each existing 1280-acre unit, McKenzie
17987, BEXP, Camp-Bakken, 8 wells, each existing 1280-acre unit in zones I, V, and VI, McK/Wms
17988, BEXP, salt water disposal
17989, Newfield, pooling
17036, cont'd, Newfield, risk penalty legalese
17990 - 17992, Triangle Petroleum, pooling
17993, Triangle Petroleum, Buffalo Wallow-Bakken, 4 wells, each existing 1280-acre unit; McKenzie
17994, Triangle Petroleum, Rawson-Bakken, 4 wells on each existing 1280-acre unit; McKenzie
17995 - 17998, EOG, pooling
17999, EOG, Parshall-Bakken, 3 wells on an existing 1920-acre unit; Mountrail
18000, EOG, Parshall-Bakken, 3 wells on an existing 1920-acre unit; 2 wells, each 3 existing 1920-acre units; Mountrail
18001, EOG, Van Hook-Bakken, 2 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; Mountrail
18002 - 18009, XTO, pooling
18010, XTO, West Capa-Bakken, 8 wells on 12 existing 1280-acre units; 96 wells; Williams
18011, XTO, Grinnell-Bakken, 8 wells on 15 existing 1280-acre units; 120 wells; McKenzie/Wms
18012, XTO, Grinnell-Bakken, 8 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; McKenzie/Wms
18013, GMXR, pooling
18014, CCS, salt water disposal
18015, Balantyne, water injection for unitized formation of the Tolley-Madison Unit, Renville Co
18016, Frontier Ventures, salt water disposal
18017, Zavanna, salt water disposal
18018, salt water disposal
16863, Corinthian Exploration, commingling

SandRidge / Mississippi Limestone Formation -- Not the Bakken -- But Bakken Technology Propelling This Shale Play To The "Front of the Line"

Locator: 10001MLIME.
Updates


May 22, 2023: it's all about lithium now; XOM could be the one.

June 20, 2018: Icahn is said to have won control of board at SandRidge.

June 18, 2018: buyout? 17 offers.

February 19, 2018: Mike Filloon, again, says the MPO / SandRidge merger is not appealing.

February 12, 2018: Mike Filloon opines on the merger between MPO and SandRidge.

February 12, 2018: Chesapeake exits the Mississippi Lime at $1,000 / acre. Mostly legacy vertical wells; maybe a quarter of the wells are horizontal Miss Lime. 

February 7, 2018: SandRidge Energy, Inc. recently landed a merger deal with its rival Midstates Petroleum Company in an all-stock deal. The move is likely to create one of the largest oil players in the Mississippian Lime shale formation. Link here

April 21, 2016: link at Oil & Gas Journal --

White Star Petroleum LLC, until recently known as American Energy-Woodford LLC, has entered a definitive agreement to buy Mississippi Lime and Woodford shale properties from Devon Energy Corp. for $200 million.
White Star is becoming a standalone company after operating as a unit of American Energy Partners LP. As part of that change, Elliot J. Chambers, chief financial officer, has been named to the additional role of chief executive officer, and Joseph D. Craig, formerly vice-president of operations, has been named chief operating officer.
The acquisition from Devon covers 210,000 largely contiguous acres offsetting acreage White Star holds in central-northern Oklahoma. Average net production from 555 operated and nonoperated wells in the acquisition was 12,800 boe/d in the first quarter, about 30% oil. Reserves at yearend 2015 totaled 11 million boe.
White Star said the acquisition doubles its production and acreage in north-central Oklahoma.
August 5, 2014: Zeits on SandRidge ahead of 2Q14 results -- SeekingAlpha.

July 7, 2014: Zeits updates SandRidge in the Mississippi Lime; still learning -- SeekingAlpha

June 19, 2014: the Mississippi Lime, not all its fracked up to be? -- Seeking Alpha

May 26, 2014: Casey Hoerth on SandRidge over at Seeking Alpha. Data points from the article (may be in "draft."

March 6, 2014: SandRidge is ready to outperform -- EquityFlux over at SeekingAlpha

March 5, 2014: what are the assets of SandRidge worth? -- Richard Zeits over at SeekingAlpha. [Unfortunately this article is now linked and requires a paid subscription.]

February 18, 2014: Richard Zeits is not impressed with SD's open-hole completions in the Mississippi Lime

January 14, 2014: a contributor at SeekingAlpha analyzes the GoM sale

December 24, 2013: Multiple zones in SandRidge's Mississippian play? (Motley Fool).
SandRidge Energy Inc., for example, found the key to unlocking oil and gas from the Mississippi Lime formation. However, the company also found that it is stacked with opportunities above and below the Mississippian that has the potential to fuel future growth. SandRidge Energy is currently appraising the potential of the Marmaton, Chester and Woodford formations. It's quite possible that one more of these zones might emerge in 2014 to really fuel SandRidge Energy's stock.
December 24, 2013: SandRidge's Mississippian wells are improving (SeekingAlpha).
SandRidge began drilling in the Lime in late 2010, meaning their oldest wells have produced for about three years. The company is currently estimating that its wells pay out in two years, so we took a look at their oldest producers to see if those estimations are accurate. This data tells us that SD's early wells didn't pay out in two years based on a $3.2 million well cost.
While natural gas production has remained flat, oil production by well increased approximately 20% from 2011 to 2012. This is important because oil is responsible for roughly 73% of a well's revenue. If the 2012 wells continue to produce 20% higher than the 2011 wells, they'll gross $3 million by their second year. SD is currently modeling sub $3 million well costs for the Lime wells, which means their newer wells are paying back in two years. A two-year payback period is on par with most major oil plays in the United States.
At this point, we're not sure why SandRidge's newer wells are producing more oil. It could be that the company is able to focus on its better areas after it delineated it acreage or the new frac designs they've cited in their earnings transcripts are paying off. Either way, the production improvements make it a stock to watch for the future. 
December 9, 2013: SandRidge's advantages in the Mississippi Lime (Motley Fool).  Is SandRidge sitting on a gusher in the gulf? -- Motley Fool

November 19, 2013: will drill 100 Kansas wells in 2013.

November 6, 2013: new presentation (a PDF file); lots of Oreos.

October 8, 2013: Sandridge as an investment, SeekingAlpha.

September 11, 2013: why SandRidge is still a buy.

June 11, 2013: another natural gas processing plant in Oklahoma to support the Mississippi Lime.

June 9, 2013: Glass Mountain Pipeline (crude oil) from Mississippi Lime / western Oklahoma to Cushing; 210 miles; two laterals; initial capacity of 140,000 bopd and intermediate storage of 440,000 bbls; to be commissioned by late 2013.

March 24, 2013: Phillips 66 betting on SandRidge, Mississippi Lime.

February 25, 2013: Chesapeake sells 50% of its acreage in the Mississippi Lime to China's Sinopec.

February 25, 2013: Part II of Mike Filloon's series on the Mississippi Lime.

February 23, 2013: Mike Filloon begins a series on the Mississippi Lime and starts with SandRidge.

January 14, 2013: SandRidge takes a page from the Chesapeake playbook -- maybe the whole playbook.

January 8, 2013: Kansas rolls out the red carpet for fracking companies.

December 19, 2012: sells Permian Basin assets for $2.6 billion -- Reuters

December 17, 2012: an update on SandRidge experience in the Mississippi Lime -- SeekingAlpha

August 30, 2012: SandRidge undervalued -- SeekingAlpha

August 9, 2012: Mississippi Lime/SandRidge at SeekingAlpha.com.

August 8, 2012: the Mississippi Lime sprawls northward into Nebraska
Horizontal wells in the US Midcontinent Mississippi lime oil play aren’t as productive as those in the Williston basin Bakken, but shallower depths and cheaper drilling costs are driving increased interest in the Mississippi lime, ...

The land play has expanded to more than 17 million acres in northern Oklahoma, western Kansas, and southern Nebraska, ...

“This is a shallow carbonate play, with depths ranging from 3,000 ft to 6,000 ft, and since it’s shallower than other US unconventional plays, operators can employ less expensive, lower horsepower rigs to drill it.”
August 6, 2012: the eastern limb of the Mississippi Lime is attracting more operators. Shallow but lots of water.
The formation is now being drilled horizontally after having produced through vertical wells for more than 50 years. IHS Inc. noted last week that the land play covers more than 17 million acres in northern Oklahoma, western Kansas, and southwestern Nebraska.

Devon Energy Corp. said it has increased its exposure to the light oil resource play to 545,000 net acres. Other acreage holders on the eastern limb include Range Resources Corp., Highmount Exploration & Production Co., Halcon Resources Corp., PetroQuest Energy Inc., and numerous private entities.

SandRidge Energy, which plans to drill 380 Mississippi lime horizontal well by the end of 2012, expects to be running 33 rigs at the end of the year.

Four of the 29 rigs SandRidge is now running drill disposal wells, given that Mississippi Lime wells produce 90% water along with commercial volumes of oil. SandRidge told investors it plans to drill 10 producing wells for every disposal well when it reaches development mode compared with five producing wells per disposal well at present.
July 15, 2012: new SandRidge corporate presentation.  I don't follow SD but their slides say shallow, conventional, and horizontal. If conventional, they should not be fracking? Back in 2010 they were producing 2,000 boepd; now SD is at 32,000 boepd.  Answer from a reader: conventional wells in the Permian Basin do not require fracking.  The Mississippi Lime is unconventional shale, requires Bakken-like completion. Because the Mississippi Lime is more shallow than the Bakken, it has cost advantages.

June 18, 2012: Sandridge -- 15 billion bbls of recoverable oil in Kansas; drilling to continue for at least ten more years;

June 4, 2012: new SandRidge corporate presentation.

June 1, 2012: trailers renting for $2000/month in Kansas. These are not FEMA trailers.

May 31, 2012: CNBC has discovered the Mississippi Lime in Kansas
Tom Ward [Sandridge] says oil output in the region by the end of the decade will grow to rival the production seen in the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, ramping up from just over 3.5 million barrels a month, to well over 18 million barrels of oil and gas. And with it, he expects a similar boom in economic development.

"Overall, the impact of Kansas, in our opinion, will be an additional 1000,000 [sic -- 100,000?] jobs that will be coming in the next 15 years," Ward says.
May 6, 2012: Things To like about SandRidge -- SeekingAlpha.com

April 20, 2012: SeekingAlpha interview with Tom Ward, SD/CEO --
SA - The Mississippian is an interesting asset as it is cheap to drill and is repeatable. If I were to compare the Bakken to the Mississippian, I would estimate a Bakken well costing between $9.5 million and $11 million with an average Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR) of approximately 600,000 barrels of oil equivalent. And actually, I’m just using a general number that Continental Resources throws out there, because they are all over the play.Your estimated well cost in the Mississippian is about $3.2 million, and it looks like the majority of your more recent completion models would give you an EUR close to 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent. Although, this is a very generic comparison, why do you believe the Mississippian does not get more positive attention?
TW - Well, half of the production is gas, so I think there are people who believe that’s a negative where I look at as upside, because the rate of return in our opinion is superior to the Bakken. I like the Bakken play, but it costs more to development and was already a crowded market by the time I wanted to buy oil. So the Mississippian was a better place to have a low entry cost and we see about 80% of the revenue that we have coming from oil, but having upside for natural gas if gas prices rebound even to $4 an Mcf, which I believe is more realistic to the market in the next year or so than the $2 that we’re at today.
The other reason is there is a high level of water production that comes along with the Mississippian. It is a very large stratigraphic trap, but as I mentioned about the Piñon field, you have to understand why this field wasn’t discovered and drilled over time, even though there have been thousands of Mississippian wells drilled over the last 50 years. But in a large portion of this area, it produces a large amount of water. So where others saw water, we saw oil and by skimming off a 10% oil cut, we can produce the quantities of oil that you mentioned and still have in our opinion the best rates of return in the U.S. today.
TW – It’s very simple: I don’t care for ultra-tight rock [Editor’s note: meaning, very tight shale requiring hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”]. That’s not to say that there aren’t great places to drill in shale. But shale formations are a nanodarcy [a measure of permeability] reservoir and if you look at the theory of permeability, that’s about a thousand times more tight than millidarcy, which is a thousand times more tight than a darcy. And so over the course of time of our industry, we went from producing darcy reservoirs in the very earliest days of oil and gas exploration to millidarcy reservoirs and from 1948, when we created fracture treatments, to the recently nanodarcy reservoirs which are one thousand times more tight than a millidarcy.
The reason to go back through all that is that anytime you are producing from just strictly a shale, and I don’t consider the Bakken a shale, I consider it more of a dolomite, but let’s just say it is a straight shale reservoir, the odds of having a poor well are much greater than having a good well, especially if you buy all the acreage first, then have to drill wells. It’s just a riskier proposition. So, in the Haynesville Formation for example, there is a small area that geologically has storage capacity to be able to produce at a very tight rock. In the rest of the area, it is high cost in order to get that gas out, and takes very high natural gas prices in order to be profitable, and I just thought it was too risky. And I didn’t know enough about the reservoirs to be able to predict where they might be good and bad.
SA – Great.Would you be interested in purchasing acreage in any of the U.S. unconventional plays, or are you currently going to focus on the Permian and Mississippian in the short-term?
TW – No. We purchased the cheapest oil in the country right now. It’s being sold in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, so that was why we made the $1.275 billion acquisition of Dynamic Offshore Resources, LLC that closed this week.
SA Contributor Michael Filloon – With your purchase of 2 million acres in the Mississippian at about $200 per acre, maybe one of the biggest steals in recent memory, give the value of the acreage and why you would choose to monetize these assets as opposed to develop and create cash flow through the drill bit?

TW – We’ll do both. So we bought more acreage than we could drill in a reasonable time frame. Some companies will keep 30, 40 or 50 years of drilling inventory and we’ve chosen to try to narrow our inventory down to around 15 years of time when we bought in the play. By being the first company to understand the scope of the play, we were able to go buy very inexpensively and so we bought with the idea that we would have other companies come and help fund our drilling in the play.
Original Post

Link here from "The American Oil & Gas Reporter," undated --
... on the way down to the Woodford Shale (downdip to the southwest of the Mississippian play area), producers had to drill through the Mississippian formation—a thick, porous carbonate deposition that extends over millions of acres in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas. Woodford operators realized the formation had porosity, permeability, and lots of hydrocarbon shows. In fact, the Mississippian has produced commercially from thousands of vertical wells for more than 50 years.

However, what suddenly has jumped the Mississippi formation to the front of the line as a top-flight onshore oil play is the same set of technologies that independent operators are deploying to enable economic shale development: horizontal drilling and multistage completions. With the industry’s focus turning to liquids-rich plays, the horizontal Mississippian oil play is right in the thick of the action.

In fact, the Mississippian play in the Mid-Continent region has cost advantages to other emerging plays because of its shallow drilling depths and low horsepower requirements for hydraulic fracturing. The added bonus for Mississippian operators in Oklahoma and Kansas is that they are working in the heart of the Mid-Continent, with ready access to transportation infrastructure, services, equipment and skilled personnel.
And more, from the SandRidge Energy perspective --
Oklahoma City-based SandRidge Energy was an early mover in the Mississippian horizontal play and is in the process of putting together a second major land position. Although Matthew Grubb, president and chief operating officer, cannot publicly disclose exactly where the new acreage holdings are being acquired because of leasing considerations, he notes that the geological characteristics are very similar to its original Mississippian play, and there is good reservoir control and production history because of the thousands of vertical wells that have been drilled in the area.

“We have identified and are actively pursuing acreage in a second Mississippian play,” says Grubb.

“Our original position is 900,000 acres in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas. In the new Mississippian play, we have leased about 400,000 acres with the goal of ultimately leasing 1 million acres. It is the same type of rock, depth and vertical production characteristics that we see in our original Mississippian play.”
Now, from the 1Q12 SandRidge earnings conference call --
We anticipate ending the year at 32 horizontal rigs and project ending 2013 45 horizontal rigs drilling for shallow, conventional oil across Northern Oklahoma and Kansas. We believe our industry will create over 100,000 jobs across this area over the next 5 years, and we'll play -- and we'll have a play as large and as important as the Bakken is to North Dakota and Montana. So we think it's a good use of capital to increase land in an area have already sold for more than 10 times your investment and are drilling exceptional wells instead of trying to find a new area to buy and start all over again.
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. I posted this because it's part of the "North Dakota to Texas Renaissance Zone" which has gotten me very, very excited. This is still a Bakken blog, but there may be additional stories on this and other plays north-to-south in fly-over-country.

This post is not a buy, sell, hold recommendation. I made my first purchase of SandRidge earlier this week and expect to accumulate more as opportunities present.

Another Reason Why I Stay Excited About The Williston Basin -- Another Monster Well

A few minutes ago I posted the daily activity report for today and noted that Hess was granted permits for six wells on a single pad in Little Knife oil field. I was curious. There was a great well already running through the section in which the six-well pad will be located.

Out of curiosity, I decided to look at some other wells in the Little Knife oil field. I went to the NDIC GIS map server, found a locus of vertical wells and zoomed in on section 3-144-98 where there were a lot of black dots, some with cross hairs (active, abandoned).

Completely random, I looked at well #6225:
  • 6225, 1,392, Petro-Hunt/Gulf Oil, Zabolotny 2-3-3-C, Little Knife field, Madison Pool, t12/77; cum 2.96 million bbls; and still producing 1,200 bbls/month.
That well must have been quite a story back in 1977 if anyone was paying attention, with an IP of nearly 1,400 bbls; it continues to produce after 35 years and actually doing quite nicely. Almost 3 million bbls from the Madison.

I think I will quit looking for now; maybe I will come back and look at few other wells in the area. 

Wow, the surprises never quit.

Seven (7) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

This was a most interesting daily activity report, May 5, 2012 -- with six of seven permits for six wells on one pad:

Operators: Hess (6), KOG
Fields: Little Knife (Dunn), Grinnell (McKenzie)
The six-well pad will be in section 22-146-97.

There is another producing well in this section:
18731, 1,434, Hess/Tracker, Wing 15-1H, t7/10; cum 136K 3/12; 
Why I stay excited about the Bakken!
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This EOG permit was canceled:
  • 21382, PNC, EOG, Van Hook 126-0107H, Mountrail County;
Seven wells were released from "tight hole" status:
  • 19549, 288, CLR, Lazorenko 1-2H,
  • 20144, 751, Petro-Hunt, Klose 151-103-26B-35-1H,
  • 21167, DRL, Hess, BW-Edwin Stenseth-149-100-2833H-1,
  • 21328, DRL, XTO, Truax State 11X-16,
  • 21643, 23 (not a typo), Hunt, Bowman 2-18H,
  • 21720, DRL, Fram Operating, Madison Pool (not a Bakken)
One producing well was completed:
  • 20544, 1,301, CLR, Kukla 3-16H,

NDIC Hearing Dockets for May Posted

I will summarize them later this evening or over the weekend, but it's going to be quite a session.

As just one example:
  • Case 17816, Whiting will be requesting up to 6 wells on a 640-acre spacing unit in Alger field, Mountrail County.

Japan Shuts Down Its Last Nuclear Reactor

54 nuclear reactors shut down in less than a year.

If Japan gets through high-demand summer months without nuclear power, it's all over for Japanese nuclear power. And the first global nuclear domino.

Rapid City/Spearfish, South Dakota, Conference Update -- Human Interest Only

Link here.

Like Grand Forks, Fargo, and Bismarck, North Dakota, the area around Rapid City and Spearfish, SD, may feel the effects of the Bakken.

LIke CLR, Denbury is Increasing CAPEX in the Bakken; DNR Rig Count Down

Link here
Increase in the Bakken number and low in the Riley Ridge forecast, which is all positive because that's shifting from gas to oil. Since our operations are starting up well as evidenced by our favorable production, costs have remained on target. In a promising oil price outlook, we've increased our 2012 capital budget by $150 million to $1.5 billion. We're adding about $80 million to our Bakken, a portion of which will fund the fourth rig and a portion of which will cover higher than initially anticipated cost.
That fourth rig? Not long ago, DNR was talking of seven rigs by the end of 2012; they got to five, but are not cutting back to four.  Interesting, and is part of the Bakken trend among major players in the Bakken. 

$1.5 billion CAPEX for DNR in the Bakken? Remember: headlines in major business media when BP announced $4 billion for the Gulf of Mexico. I can't "visualize" a billion dollars, but $1.5 billion and $4 billion seem to me to be in the same oil patch ballpark. I didn't see any headlines in major business media about DNR's investment in the Bakken. 

In its conference call, CLR also noted that it was increasing its CAPEX in the Bakken substantially. 

DNR Transcript -- 1Q12 -- DNR? Think: Waterflooding/EOR

The opening remarks from the Denbury conference call had nothing to do with the Bakken, but had value as instructional with regard to the potential of waterflooding.
We announced we agreed to acquire Thompson Field for $360 million plus a production payment. This is a significant strategic acquisition for us and exactly the type of deal that we want to do for the following reasons.

First and foremost, Thompson Field is desirable because it's a large field located only 18 miles from the termination of our Green Pipeline, meaning that there will be minimal additional required pipeline infrastructure to plug this field. It's a field technically similar to Hastings, meaning that what we learned at Hastings, we'll usually transfer over. It's a large field with an estimated 650 million barrels of oil in place, and it is one of our top 10 desired fields in the Gulf Coast area.

As our review has been rather limited thus far, we've not yet determined how much of the field will be floodable, but we are comfortable saying we can target at least 300 million barrels of original oil in place. That would translate into an EOR target of 30 million to 60 million barrels, or expressed in other way, it's an estimated recovery approximate equal to Tinsley Field. While significant, I believe that with further review, we will additional floodable areas at Thompson and the projected EOR recoveries should increase. Although initial EOR production is a few years away, this will fit in nicely with our Gulf Coast program, extending our peak EOR production from that area. 
Elsewhere it was stated that it will probably cost $8 - $10/bbl to waterflood the field. The $360 million/60 million bbls (most optimist) --> $6/bbl "plus the production payment."  That translates to less than $20/bbl "plus the production payment."

For newbies: a nice discussion of tertiary production/EOR. Note: in the example above, DNR assumes 20% of oil-in-place can be produced via waterflooding; compare with 2 - 8 percent from primary production.

Filloon's Analysis of KOG's 1Q12 Earnings Report

Link here.

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

A Note To The Granddaughters

Last night our 8 y/o granddaughter asked if I thought she read a wide range of books; she's a voracious reader. And, of course, she does read a wide range of books.

I didn't mention the list of books I'm currently reading, but someday another reader's reading list might come up in conversation:
Marilyn had a lifetime interest in the occult, and she often visited astrologers and psychics. She retained a sense of proportion, however, and dismissed one famous astrologer, Carroll Righter, in a way that demonstrated her priorities. Righter asked her, "Did you know you were born under the same sign [Gemini] as Rosalind Russell, Judy Garland, and Rosemary Clooney?" Marilyn looked him straight in the eye and replied, "I know nothing of these people. I was born under the same sign as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Queen Victoria, and Walt Whitman."

The sign of Gemini, Marilyn said, stood for intellect. Her search for knowledge was to become a lifetime preoccupation, one many would mock as pretentious posturing. It was not. Marilyn devoured Thomas Wolfe, James Joyce, poetry (mostly romantic), biographies, and history books.

Abraham Lincoln became Marilyn's special hero. (She would later strike up a friendship with Lincoln's biographer, Carl Sandburg.) Lincoln's portrait would follow her from home to home till the end of her life, and his Gettysburg Address usually hung nearby. It was her first love affair with a President of the United States.
Later,
...she owned a book called De Humani Corporis Fabrica, a learned study of the human anatomy by the sixteenth-century scholar, Andreas Vesalius. It was marked up in detail, and Marilyn explained that hse was studying the bone structure of the body. Paintings from the book, by Jan Stephan van Kalkar, of the Titian school, would long decorate the walls of her poorly furnished rooms, and even near the end of her life when she was in the grip of drus, Marily would instruct young friends with an encyclopedic knowledge of the human bone structure. 
From Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Anthony Summers, c. 1985.

I was aware of this side of Marilyn Monroe; it was "fun" to read about her again. It's "funny" to see the coincidences in life. I do believe Carl Sandburg's biography of Abraham Lincoln was the first "real" book/biography I ever read. I recall reading it in eighth grade. I also recall Mr Thue's study hall but that's another story for another time. I was in Mr Thue's study hall at 1:03 p.m. when the middle school's public address system told us of the assassination that November. I guess the proteins storing memories of Marilyn, Kennedy, Thue, Sandburg, are all fairly close geographically somewhere in my left limbic lobe. The first three "adult" books I remember: a) Carl Sandburg's "Abraham Lincoln"; b) a biography of Albert Schweitzer; and, c) a history of the Greek statesman and general, Pericles.

Unemployment Rate Drops

Remember: the magic number is 200,000 (more is good)

Expectations: the economy would add 168,000 jobs (and that estimate had been lowered over the past week)

Actual: 115,000 jobs added this past week.

The Wall Street Journal was generous in its analysis:
U.S. job growth slowed again in April, a fresh sign that the economy could be settling into a sluggish spring.  
Sluggish. If only.

The last line of the linked article:
A broader measure of unemployment—which includes job seekers as well as those stuck in part-time jobs—was unchanged at 14.5%. 

Bridging the Gap: TransCanada Submits The Presidential Permit Application For Keystone XL 2.0N

Episode 48 in which the President gets a do-over:
TransCanada has submitted a Presidential Permit application to the U.S. Department of State for the Keystone XL Pipeline from the U.S./Canada border in Montana to Steele City, Nebraska. TransCanada will supplement that application with an alternative route in Nebraska as soon as that route is selected. TransCanada expects to begin construction of Keystone XL in the first quarter of 2013, with completion slated for late 2014 or early 2015. Construction of the $2.3 bln Gulf Coast Project (Cushing, Oklahoma to Nederland, Texas) is expected to begin this summer, with an in-service date of mid to late 2013. -- Yahoo!InPlay.
Keystone XL 2.0S will be from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf Coast. The application noted above will carry the pipeline from the Canadian border to Steele City, Nebraska, which leaves a 300-mile gap to Cushing. If I am reading this correctly, that gap will be addressed in a "supplement" to that application. The gap will be known as the Keystone XL 2.0Gap, or the Keystone-Nebraska Compromise.


An Issue of Trust


Episode 47 here.

Converting NG Pipelines To Carry Crude -- RBN Energy

This is Part 3.
What if I told you that a typical liquids pipeline can generate four times the revenue of a gas pipeline of equivalent diameter and length.  The crude pipe can move four times the energy.  And clearly, four times the energy and four times the revenue leads to four times the fun of running and operating a pipeline.  Right now a lot of gas pipelines are not having much fun.  On the other hand, it is party time at most crude oil pipelines.  Bust out the red solo cups.  Let’s figure out just how much fun they are having.