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Sunday, November 18, 2012

3Q12 Wells On "DRL" Status Have Been Updated; CLR Has Some Nice Murphy Creek Wells

I have just updated the IPs for wells that were on "DRL" status back in 3Q12 when they came off the confidential list.

Three things were noted (two of which were not unexpected):
  • BEXP continues to report wells with  2,500 to 3,500 bbl-IPs
  • BR also reports similarly huge IPs
  • CLR is reporting some unusually high IPs in Murphy Creek
After three or four years of tracking every Bakken well in the current boom, one starts to get a feelig for the typical IP for any given operator.

It's my experience that CLR wells generally have IPs between 500 and 900 bbls.

So, it was quite surprising to see the  CLR Murphy Creek wells, specifically the Roadrunner and Clvoer wells, coming in with IPs above 1,000 bbls. Go to the link and quickly scroll through the wells to get a feeling for the IPs.

Whiting to Test a Horizontal in a Legacy Formation in 2013

A comment provided by a reader:
A very minor comment. Whiting November presentation around page 12 shows they are developing some Red River "D" wells verticals. Then they said they will try a horizontal fairly soon.
Not minor at all;  could be a big deal before it's all over.

Presentations can be found here.

In Whiting's "Big Island" prospect in southwest North Dakota, Whiting has continued with its vertical Red River drilling program.

Data points (some numbers rounded):
  • Big Island prospect: 122,000 net acres
  • 50 prospects in the Upper Red River "D"
  • an average of two drilling locations per prospect
  • average IP across last seven wells: 275 boepd
  • EUR: 200 - 300 mboe (200,000 to 300,000 bbls equivalent)
  • cost; $3 - $3.5 million (compare with $10 million Bakken wells)
  • completed the Ross 13-2 in August, 2012; 300 boepd
And then this: Whiting will test the Lower Red River "D" zone with a horizontal well in 2013.

Bakken Might Need 50,000 More Workers In the Next Few Years ....

... which was posted earlier. Now we learn that Alberta oil sands might need as many as 130,000 more workers over the next seven years. Canada is considering a well-disciplined, highly-trained, motivated group of men and women.

About That Rig ....

Nabors to OSHA: Get a warrant.

But, if you want to see the photos, here they are.

[Huge thanks to a reader for sending me the links. By the way, the link takes you to a great blog, one I have linked before but just too many oil and gas links to keep track of. I appreciate everyone's help sending me links to help me out. I generally don't credit by "name," other than to say "reader." If anyone wants more specific credit, please let me know.]

"They" are blaming the mishap on a computer error. I'm trying to figure out what might have led the computer to think it was time to close up shop for the day. Maybe the oft-talked-about-seldom-seen "9-to-5 bureaucrat virus."

Chesapeake's Grenz, #21885 With An IP Of Zero; Hutzenbiler, #22223, Also A Goose Egg

To the best of my knowledge these have not been posted previously. I was updating the IPs of wells that were last reported to be on "DRL" status, and these popped up.
  • 21885, 0, Chesapeake, Grenz 26-138-98 A 1H, Bakken/Three Forks, the well produced 77 bbls of oil in 25 days of production in September, 2012; 
  • 22223, 0, CHK, Hutzenbiler 9-137-99 A, a Madison well;  t6/12; cum 419 bbls 9/12; the well was on-lie for 6 days in September; there was no production during those six days.
The Grenz well had some production, not a dry hole:

PoolDateDaysBBLS OilRunsBBLS WaterMCF ProdMCF SoldVent/Flare
BAKKEN/THREE FORKS9-20122577018791000
BAKKEN/THREE FORKS8-201292808110000

The Hutzenbiler well had some production, not a dry hole:

PoolDateDaysBBLS OilRunsBBLS WaterMCF ProdMCF SoldVent/Flare
MADISON9-20126000000
MADISON8-20127177395307352520252
MADISON7-2012191640229748870887
MADISON6-20121578084072640264



Wells Coming Off Confidential List This Past Weekend; Miscellaneous Links

LA Times, paid subscription required, so a different link: US Marines in southern California provide a 5-acre haven to protect the desert tortoise. This story is full of irony. For decades, faux-environmentalists have had issues with US Marine sites in California. But faux-environmentalists support destroying the habitat of the desert tortoise with single-use solar farms -- and it is the US Marines that are providing a haven for these endangered species. 

LA Times: it looks like the LA Times finally got a reporter out to Chippewa County, WI, repoting an old story -- with a fancy headline -- mining sand for fracking causing friction in Wisconsin. NIMBY.
Sand formations sought by the oil and gas industry run under western Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois. Wisconsin was built on mining, mainly lead and iron, but sand mines were usually small and supplied local construction. Now, the sand mining boom has attracted oil and gas companies like EOG and Chesapeake Energy, local large landowners and entrepreneurs and hedge funds like Wexford Capital of Greenwich, Conn.
RBN Energy: update on the Houston to Houma pipeline reversal and the challenges it will present. 

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

Wells coming off confidential list this past weekend and today, Monday:

Look at that first well (I think it came off confidential list over the weekend; it was the one permit I might have mistyped). Be that as it may, look at how fast this one came in: it was spud May 17, 2012 (I checked the well file and that's what it says: spud May 17, 2017). Completed and tested August 20, 2012, and already reporting an IP. I'm sure there are many, many other examples but for some reason this caught my attention. 

In addition, note that only ONE well was put on DRL status after the 6-month confidential period. Last year it was not unusual to see up to 50% of wells going on to DRL status. This is very, very encouraging. 

In general, very, very good wells, over all. 

11/17
20048, 1,283, BR, Carlsbad 21-17H, Banks, t8/12; cum 7K 9/12;
21935, 812, Whiting, Satterthwaite 14-7TFX, Sanish, Mountrail, t5/12; cum 24K 9/12;
22066, 1,329, Whiting, Mork Trust 21-17H, Pleasant Hill, McKenzie, t5/12; cum 46K 9/12;
22224, 971, Fidelity, Kuntz 25-36H, Green River, Stark, t5/12; cum 46K 9/12;
22439, 925, Petro-Hunt, Wisness 152-96-28A-33-2H, Clear Creek, McKenzie, t10/12; cum --
22442, 685, Hess, MC-Sickler-144-95-1423H-1, Murphy Creek, Dunn, t8/12; cum 32K 9/12;
22494, 1,298, Newfield, Bernice 150-99-20-17-3H, South Tobacco Garden, McKenzie, t9/12; cum 15K 9/12;
22517, 784, Hess, BW-Sharon-150-100-2536H-1, Timber Creek, McKenzie, t9/12; cum 35K 9/12;
22658, 1,324, Marathon, Lee Christensen 34-33H, Bailey, Dunn, t9/12; cum 24K 9/12;
22717, 401, SM Energy, Carter 9-8HW, Colgan, Divide, t8/12; cum 13K 9/12;
22856, 40, CLR, WMPHU 11-9H, Medicine Pole Hills, Bowman, a Red River well; t8/12; cum 1K 9/12;

11/18
20222, 873, Hess/Tracker, 3WX 3-1H, Banks, McKenzie, t9/12; cum 27K 9/12;
22429, 743, Fidelity, Reynold 14-11H, Sanish, Mountrail, t6/12; cum 54K 9/12;
22488, 1,320, BR, Big Bend 31-2TFH, Camel Butte, McKenzie, t8/12; cum 3K 9/12;
22530, 712, ERF, Bradfield 31-14H, Eagle Nest, McKenzie, t10/12; cum 7K 9/12;
22612, 481, Hess, SC-Bingeman-154-98-0904H-1, Truax, Williams, t9/12; cum 8K 9/12;
22908, 235, WPX, Mason 2-11HWR, Van Hook, Mountrail, t8/12; cum 9K 9/12;

11/19
20419, 1,454, XTO, FBIR Grinnell 34X-33C, Heart Butte, Dunn, t8/12; cum 22K 9/12;
22869, drl, XTO, Flatland 11X-2A, Sand Creek, McKenzie, s5/12;

Mystery Solved -- Remember Those 120,000 Acres ...

... that CLR announced it had acquired some days/weeks ago?

A huge thank you to Don for this link: CLR acquired the acreage from Samson Resources. Samson was on my short list, but I ruled it out.

From the first link:
The seller of the assets is Samson Resources, one of the largest privately held exploration and production companies in the U.S. A year ago, Samson was acquired by a group of investors led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) from the Schusterman family for $7.2 billion (other investors are Natural Gas Partners, Crestview Partners and Itochu Corporation). Founded in 1971, by the time of the acquisition by KKR, Samson had grown key positions in oil and liquids-rich plays such as the Bakken, Powder River Basin, Green River Basin, Granite Wash, Cana Woodford and Cotton Valley as well as in the Haynesville and Bossier gas shales and owned interests in over 10,000 wells of which it operated over 4,000 wells in the U.S.
And the deal:
Last week was marked by the announcement of yet another sizeable M&A transaction in the Williston Basin. Continental Resources  disclosed on November 7, 2012, that it has entered into an agreement to acquire producing and undeveloped properties in the Bakken for $650 million. The property includes leasehold of approximately 120,000 net acres, primarily in Divide and Williams counties, North Dakota, and production of approximately 6,500 Boe/d. This consolidating acquisition adds to Continental's strong position in the northern portion of the Bakken play and increases the company's interest in the properties it already operates.
Go to the link for more.

Folks may remember the huge story regarding the new development in Williston announced by KKR the other day.

Cheapshot/catty: 10 - 1, this story will be posted elsewhere within the hour, but the MDW will not be referenced. 

Buffalo Commons -- Déjà Vu All Over Again

Updates

January 21, 2013: Buffalo Commons -- it's back.

Original Post

Link here to an earlier post on the Poppers and the buffalo commons.

Then, this, today from The Bismarck Tribune: more than 250 buffalo to be auctioned today in South Dakota!
More than 250 buffalo will be sold at the park's annual auction, including 43 2-year-old pregnant heifers. The auction follows September's jaw-dropping roundup in which more than 1,000 of the beasts stampeded across the prairie.
The sale raises money for the park system while reducing the herd to a sustainable size — something that is especially important after a mild winter and dry summer left the grassland parched and at risk for over-grazing, said Gary Brundige, the park's resource program manager.
"We'd started to rebuild (the herd) a little bit, but this past year we were probably two-thirds normal on rainfall," Brundige said. "So we upped the sale a little bit more than we'd initially planned."
The auction, set in picturesque Black Hills prairie, is part of a carefully planned bison management program. The park aims to keep the herd at about 1,300 bison. Each September, cowboys and cowgirls.
ls help corral the rumbling animals in a stampede that draws thousands of spectators from across the world.
We're not quite where the Poppers expected us to be by 2012, but we're slowly getting there.

Punctuated, of course, by a few oil wells.