While traveling I got a nice note from a reader regarding North Dakota and a company that we've not talked about for a long time -- a company that still has lots of acreage in North Dakota but is not actively drilling.
Regular readers can probably guess who we're talking about.
Chesapeake.
To the best of my knowledge, Chesapeake still has over 400,000 net acres in the Williston Basin. There haven't been any articles suggesting they've sold it all off, though they don't talk about it any more.
Okay, that was background.
Marathon is requesting four spacing units to drill the Tyler formation in Slope County. I assume this is in/near the area where Chesapeake has all its North Dakota holdings.
A reader noted: According to ND GI-157 these locations are right in the middle of the southern "best"
area for the Tyler. One can find geological publications at the NDIC website and here.
The reader also noted that Marathon continued to acquire acreage in northeast Slope County even after Chesapeake quit leasing. The reader thinks that northeast Slope County is now pretty much leased and state lands are tied up with leases until 2015/2016. If MRO has some nice wells in the Tyler, the reader suggests that we could see Chesapeake back in the Williston Basin.
Further, the reader notes that Chesapeake still has nine rigs in the Williston Basin: seven in North Dakota and two in Montana (google: location, nomac drilling rigs). It is likely that Chesapeake's leases will be up in a couple of years, so they either need to renew, drill, or sell. Maybe that was one reason Chesapeake delayed their decision; let the leases run to their end before making a decision.
It would simply be awesome if MRO is successful with their Tyler wells. I might visit Dickinson just to see the economic burst of activity.
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