Varying Completion Techniques, Varying Results In The Bakken -- Mike Filloon

Mike has another exceptional article at SeekingAlpha: very long, detailed, with a nice summary.

This is the paragraph on COP's completion technique:

COP has been very active in Haystack Butte. This field is to the southwest of Grail. Conoco's production here is a good example of how IP rates can be altered due to operator completion changes. Conoco would frac part of the horizontal and bring to production. It does this three to four times, bringing parts of the lateral to production over time.

The above results are all over the board and first indications are this completion method is not successful. Conoco had the worst production average of all operators in this article. Also, there is no consistency to design. Some of these long laterals used very low amounts of proppant, while others used very large volumes of water. Conoco's well results may have been skewed due to how it reports its IP rates. 

In some of the above wells, it would report production over a larger number of days in the first month than were actually producing. It also shut down production in some of these wells over the winter months. I would guess there isn't pipe in the ground to transport crude, so instead of trying to truck it out, Conoco shuts the well for a few months. Either way, many of these wells did have production problems.

His summary:

We continue to see a large number of economic wells in northeast McKenzie County.

Not only are these wells economic, but we are seeing a larger number with one year pay outs.

Although production per foot is much better with short laterals, tight stages and more water and proppant, we continue to see more operators using long laterals. This has been very good for operators like Kodiak, which has proven its laterals are sound at a two mile length.

We are starting to see a decrease in production to the south of Grail Field in northeast McKenzie County.

The sweet spot is 30 miles north to south from Charlson to Grail Field. From east to west, it covers 20 miles from Twin Valley to Sanish Field.

I excluded Sanish, Parshall and Alger fields, as it is a different type of production. The northeast McKenzie sweet spot has increased natural fracturing and natural gas production. Parshall Field and the surrounding areas have a much larger percentage of crude.

Northeast McKenzie County will not only produce higher EURs, but it will do this in both the middle Bakken and upper Three Forks. This does not necessarily mean these wells will produce larger revenues, as southwest Mountrail County will produce a much larger percentage of crude.

The long article at the link has much, much more information.