Nine (9) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Heckmanm webcast, March 11, 2013 (click here).

Active rigs: 189 (very nice, somewhat surprising, up nicely)

Nine (9) new permits --

• Operators: CLR (5), Triangle (3), Whiting
• Fields: Sanish (Mountrail), Pronghorn (McKenzie), Baker (McKenzie)
  Comments:

Wells coming off the confidential list were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

Producing well completed:

• 21983, 504, CLR, Alpha 2-14H, Camp, middle Bakken, 4-section spacing, t2/13; cum -- runs south;

Note: CLR's Alpha 2-14H is on a six-well pad; the four-section spacing unit is a stand-up (vertical; sections 2, 11, 14, and 23; that means that an individual owning mineral acres in section 2 will participate in royalties for oil from section 23 as much as four miles away); if one has minerals for any one of these wells, one has minerals for all six wells; one well is still DRL status; the other five:

• 21977, 1,016, CLR, Florida 3-11H, middle Bakken, t1/13; cum -- ; runs north
• 21979, 338, CLR, Alpha 3-14H, middle Bakken, t1/13 cum --; runs south
• 21980, 569, CLR, Florida 1-11H, Three Forks, t1/13; cum -- ;runs north
• 21981, 377, CLR, Alpha 1-14H, Three Forks, t1/13; cum --; runs south,
• 21982, drl, CLR, Florida 2-11H, should run north;

These six wells are on the eastern half of the four sections; there is room for similar wells in the western half, or six more wells; twelve total. Eight of the twelve will be middle Bakken; four of the twelve will be upper Three Forks (or possible six/six).  Depending on the geology, one could think about six more wells in each half of the sections, targeting the 2nd and 3rd benches of the lower Three Forks. Therefore, if the geology supports it, this one spacing unit could see 24 wells. That works out to 6 wells/section which is about what folks are expecting with current technology in the best Bakken. One can make a case for even more wells if the geology and the production supports it, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.