Random Update: The Red River Formation

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

Emails between Lynn Helms, Department of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas Division director, and Debra Walworth, executive director of Prairie West Development and point person for Golden Valley County for the Vision West steering committee, show that Colorado-based Whiting Oil and Gas are drilling with one rig in the Red River formation.

“Their best estimate for now is somewhere between 50 and 150 wells,” Helms wrote in the email. “One rig is enough to drill out the 50 wells, if some of the concepts they are testing result in the well count going to 100 they will add a second rig and if it goes to 150 possible a 3rd.”

Information Helms had previously shared with the Golden Valley County Vision West steering committee had only shown development in the Bakken and Three Forks formations in the county, Walworth said.

Adding Red River formation projections changes the growth outlook for Beach and Golden Valley County, she said.

“It made a big difference in the oil field jobs that would be out here,” Walworth said. “I think 2013 to 2015 will be interesting.”

Beach, like many western North Dakota cities, is already struggling with housing, Walworth said. But its need is not as great as cities like Dickinson or Watford City.

It just never quits, does it?

In the "Top Stories of 2012" I mentioned that the Red River is the "other" formation in the Williston Basin, right now.