Friday, March 8, 2013

Five (5) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA; Chesapeake Cancels A Permit

Active rigs: 186 (steady)

Five (5) new permits --
  • Operators: Whiting (2), BR, XTO, CLR
  • Fields: Elidah (McKenzie), Arnegard (McKenzie), West Capa (Williams), Lindahl (Williams), Bicentennial (Golden Valley)
  • Comments:
Wells coming off confidential list were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

Producing well completed:
  • 22252, 603, Oasis, Delta 6093 34-15H, Gros Ventre, t12/12; cum 2K 1/13;
Permit canceled:
  • 22160, PNC, Chesapeake, Wolf 17-135-96 A 1H, Three Forks, Wildcat, Hettinger County

6 comments:

  1. The cancelled Chesapeake permit is pretty far south into Hettinger County. Apparently not much there due to Bakken immaturity. Maybe the Chinese are more interested in Chesapeake's Stark County leases? I can't blame the Chinese, good olde USA has never had an energy policy and probably never will. We are doing it to ourselves.

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    Replies
    1. Agreed. I was just surprised Chesapeake took the time to cancel a permit. They must have had a slow day in the office.

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  2. Yes, surprising to hear Chesapeake doing anything with respect to ND oil. My layman perception, is that based on current understanding of Bakken maturity limits(which I think has solidified greatly over the last couple of years), I would doubt anyone is interested in the Cheseapeake leases(Stark/Hettinger/etc)....for the Bakken/Three Forks. Whiting seemingly understands the Pronghorn play very well, and I think has most of the leases they need to pursue that formation...again based on maturity of the the Bakken(need mature Bakken for Bakken/Threeforks/Pronghorn to produce). Is there map that shows the the Chesapeake leases?...could these be viable for the Tyler or Red River?...I hear sporatically about Tyler leasing, but not alot...I suppose the Bakken is still the overriding focus....probably for some time....thoughts?

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    Replies
    1. 1. I don't think CHK's acreage in North Dakota is known to anyone but CHK, unless someone wanted to go through all the county filings.

      2. If there acreage was presented anywhere, it would be in their corporate presentations and in their March, 2013, presentation, the Bakken is not even mentioned. In fact, the slide that shows CHK's ten areas of focus, the entire state of North Dakota is masked by a dialogue box. That box could have been placed elsewhere; placing it there suggests they don't even want to remind folks of their failure in the Bakken. Also, it could mean that they have decided to ignore it or sell it. [Despite the 1 Mar 13 story about selling their Bakken acreage, there has been no confirmation.]

      3. You are correct with regard to the Tyler. Others have said it better than I can say it, but the Bakken is so "hot" operators have no interest in looking at other plays at this time (except for the Spearfish in the north, which is being targeted by Canadian companies.

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  3. We have leased to Chesapeake in 2011, 8-137-98, also, they have more leases around that area.

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  4. Chesapeake canceled the permit for section 17-137-98:
    22630, PNC, Chesapeake, Burwick 17-137-98 A 1H.

    I have seen no confirmation that CHK has sold their North Dakota acreage, but based on their March, 2013, corporate presentation they are not going to drill any time soon in North Dakota.

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