A Reader's Comment on CLR, Decline Rates, EURs

The following came in as a comment to another post from a reader. I was simply going to link the comment for those who might not see comments, but the comment was so well done, I thought I would place it here as a stand-alone post for wider coverage.

For CLR, the company that started developing the Cedar Hills Red River continuous dolomite with horizontal drilling in Bowman County almost 30 years ago, just keeps chugging along. Nothing flashy.

When Leigh Price offered there may be over 500 billion barrels in the Bakken I’m sure there was much skepticism. Today Harold Hamm says 80% more than that. Also something that has made Cedar Hills successful is the results of secondary recovery. CLR once again has a lot of experience in this area but has made no attempt on this effort in the Bakken that I am aware of.

They are still advancing their position with drilling and fracing as witnessed by the wells listed below in sections 28 and 29 of 146/96. The Bice 1-29H was one of the first TF wells drilled by CLR. The Bice 2-29H was part of an effort to determine if there was communication between TF and MB. The Hartman 1 and 2 were drilled about 1 ½ miles to the east of the Bice wells with Hartman 3 and 4 located between the earlier drilled two sets of wells.

I have no background or education to comment on the information below but looking at the data makes for some interesting head scratching. After three (3) years Bice 2 and Hartman 1 are almost ½ way to your estimated recovery. Hartman 3 and 4 are off to a much better start.

16943 TF Bice 1-29H completed 5/9/8 IP 516 BO 1st 30 days approx 8,600 cum to date 124,817
17530 TF Hartman 1-28H comp 11/10/09 IP 780 1st 30 days approx 15,600 cum 174,702
17884 MB Bice 2-29H comp 12/21/09 IP 147 1st 30 days (over 3 mo) approx 15,000 cum 188,404
21524 MB Hartman 2-28H comp 5/16/12 IP 732 1st 30 days approx 17,100 cum 86,181
23212 TF Hartman 4-28H comp 11/14/12 IP 1,656 1st 30 day approx 28,566
23213 MB Hartman 3-28H comp 11/13/12 IP 1,703 1st 30 days approx 29,711

I have full confidence in CLR’s estimated recovery rates. I am confident that when they have some fully drilled out units and introduce secondary recovery the recovery rates will go up and the decline rates will go down. Just as they have done in Cedar Hills.

Those better IPs really are impressive (Hartman 3 and 4 compared to Hartman 1 and 2, Bice 1 and 2).