Friday, March 15, 2013

Some Nice Bakken Links for Friday Night; Whiting -- Fracking The "Oreo Cookie Halves" To Develop the Creamy Filling; Lower Bakken Silt Discovered By Whiting

A reader sent in several links regarding the Bakken.

A big "thank you" to a reader for sending these stories/links. Some of this information has previously been reported.

1. Conoco update in the Bakken; record well in the Bakken; earmarks $4 billion for the Bakken through 2017. For newbies, Burlington Resources (BR) is wholly-owned subsidiary of COP.

2. Previously reported; from another site: New Bakken formation -- Whiting to drill up to 15 wells to test Lower Bakken Silt oil zone at Hidden Bench; see below.

3. Top three Bakken wells by IP rate:
While ConocoPhillips brought in what appears to be the best initial production rate, or IP, for oil produced in a 24-hour period of any well in North Dakota to date with its McKenzie County Brazos 24-34H well in 2012, Whiting Oil and Gas appears to be running a close second — and third — based on limited research of the North Dakota Oil and Gas Division’s data base by Petroleum News Bakken. Whiting has three wells in the Twin Valley field in northern McKenzie County called the Tarpon wells. Two of those Tarpon wells rank second and third behind ConocoPhillips’ Brazos 23-34H well in terms of oil IP rates. 
  • 20636, 5,130, BR (COP), Brazos 24-34H, Charlson, t6/12; cum 59K 1/13;
  • 22361, 4,971, Whiting, tarpon Federal 21-4-3H, Twin Valley, t12/12; cum 64K 1/13;
  • 20589, 4,815, Whiting, Tarpon Federal 21-4H, Twin Valley, t10/11; cum 302K 1/13;
In light of recent comments by Director, NDIC, this update may be particularly timely; it is possible the record IP and/or production from a new well will be reported soon.

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With regard  to the Whiting story testing the Bakken Silt:
The company is so confident about transforming the Silt into production that it plans to invest millions of dollars “bracketing” the formation with as many as eight wells above and seven wells below the Silt.
The wells, to be drilled on 160-acre spacing, might even improve current production from the Middle Bakken zone, the company said.
Previous ‘Silt” drilling failed Whiting said it previously attempted to drill into the Lower Bakken Silt but ran into difficulties when the drill bit got stuck in the formation. “So our approach here is essentially to drill both above it in the Middle Bakken and below it in the Three Forks and essentially frack simultaneously to develop this zone,” Mark Williams, Whiting’s senior vice president of exploration and development, told analysts March 4 at the Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference in Orlando, Florida. [Fracking the "Oreo cookie halves" to develop the cream.]
At Hidden Bench, Whiting could increase the density of the middle Bakken and/or Pronghorn formation wells, as well as target the Lower Bakken Silt.  

In addition to this information, there is much, much more information at the link.

8 comments:

  1. Instead of drilling and fracking to get oil or gas, why not do it to get...

    information?

    And, instead of an E&P company trying to make money, let the mineral owner pay someone to drill and frack ... for information.

    No, not information about oil or gas, information about the well.

    And then use the proceeds for ... wait, what proceeds?

    This is too intellectual for me to understand.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tenn-university-proposes-fracking-own-102343582.html

    anon 1

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here's something for you to add to the page dedicated to the Heath/Tyler Formation: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/shale-formation-in-montana-frustrates-oil-drillers/article_14e20e2f-fa60-5eb3-9b86-e7d8d3cb8870.html

    There's also a small bit of information about the Bakken in Montana in that article too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. I've posted the link at the Tyler/Heath page.

      Disappointing. Time will tell.

      Delete

  3. A Minneapolis story on expansion of New Town's oil terminal:

    http://www.startribune.com/business/198551531.html

    A Chicago story:

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-north-dakota-fracking-chicagoans-20130317,0,6720319.story?page=1

    A St Paul story:

    http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_22794601/minnesota-businesses-booming-along-north-dakota-oil-rush

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those are excellent; thank you very much. To ensure broader readership I will post as a stand-alone post.

      Thank you very much. I love the photo/ graphic in the first link above (the New Town terminal).

      Again, thank you.

      Delete
  4. The whiting presentation states that they will be performing some refracks over in Montrail this year and so a report from a different source that stated refracking is not possible is contradictory.

    One bit of information that I have been told is that if a well is to be considered for a refrack, the higher the percentage of ceramic proppant to sand for the original frack makes a well more suitable for the refrack process. An original all sand frack job may make a well unsuitable for future refracking. Currently, I do not know why this is and I have not taken the time to see what mix Whiting uses. I think most operators are using 60/40 to 50/50. I am pretty sure EOG is still using all sand though.

    I do not have any qualifications to make any statement on this issue. The information came directly from a professional in the fracking industry that does work in ND.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will have to note that in the main post (if I remember) as well as post it at the "fracking" site (sidebar at the right). Like so much in the Bakken, much is yet to be learned, and it appears the jury is still out on re-fracking.

      I would assume even if they can't refrack, there will be plenty of locations to keep them busy. I am still convinced that where these is inadequate natural fracking, manmade fracturing is only effective 500 feet radially out from the horizontals. A lot of space for more horizontals.

      Delete

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