And This, Folks, Is Why Bakken Acreage Still Commands A Premium, And Why the Bakken Is The Gold Standard; Four QEP Wells With High IPs

From Friday's NDIC daily activity report, six producing wells that have been completed:

• 24398, 2,909, QEP, MHA 1-04-33H-150-92, Heart Butte, middle Bakken, t7/13; cum --
• 24400, 2,844, QEP, MHA 2-04-33H-150-92, Heart Butte, middle Bakken, t7/13; cum --
• 24399, 2,381, QEP, MHA 3-04-33H-150-92, Heart Butte, Three Forks; t7/13; cum --
• 24401, 2,384, QEP, MHA 4-04-33H-150-92, Heart Butte, t7/13; cum --
• 24600, 592, Sequel, Leon 21-8H-0817-15895-TF, McGregor, May 7 - 25; fairly high gas units; t8/13; cum --
• 24599, 694, Sequel, Larena 21-8H-0817-15895-MB, McGregor, high gas units; 24-foot trip gas flare, t8/12; cum -- 

I track Heart Butte here; it has been updated; a great field for newbies to look at, to see the incredible production potential in the Bakken. 

In addition, there were twelve (12) new permits:

• Operators: Statoil (3), Corinthian (2), HRC (2), MRO, Cornerstone, CLR, American Eagle, Whiting
• Fields: Red Rock (Bottineau), Coteau (Burke), White Earth (Mountrail), Sanish (Mountrail), Otter (Williams), Northeast Landa (Bottineau), Alger (Mountrail)
• Comments: MRO has a permit for a wildcat in Slope County; American Eagle has a permit for a wildcat in Divide County;

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Unedited e-mail sent in reply to a note from a reader (my reply may not make sense without the original e-mail note from the reader, but ....)

Great comments. Thank you.

Yes, comparing ALL of Texas to the Bakken is comparing apples with oranges. I think folks forget the Bakken is essentially four counties, and then whatever they find around Dickinson in the next Three Forks and Tyler boom, yet to come.

I agree with you. Unless there are some major geopolitical debacles impacting the Bakken negatively, I doubt Dickinson will be overbuilt. Hopefully, I will see for myself in October. But, without question, the activity is still centered in McKenzie County right now.

The flared gas issue is quite troubling. The only way they can make a dent in flared gas is shutting in or choking back a lot of wells. It looks like "little" mineral owners can get $80,000/month in crude oil royalties, and $4,000/month in NGLs from Bakken wells, and some of those folks are complaining that they are losing $4,000/month in "wasted" natural gas. It is not worth the effort, money, or time for the operators to put in a pipeline to some of those remote wells, and even if they did, ONEOK and MDU don't have enough processing capacity to handle all that natural gas so it would still be flared. If those complaining about wasted flared gas, wait until NDIC or the Feds start shutting in those wells that are flaring; then they will have something to complain about.

I don't know if you saw the RBN Energy article. The natural gas production from the Marcellus will increase by 8 times, and they will be piping the excess natural gas out to Montana, Utah, etc., and that will put further pressure on the Bakken natural gas flaring issue. And we haven't even begun to talk about all the NGL coming out of Canada. When that NGL tsunami hits, the $4,000/month in wasted natural gas will probably go to $1,000/month. And some folks will still be complaining about "wasted" gas. It suggests to me they do not understand the economics of drilling. Of course, I don't either.

Thank you for taking time to write; sharing comments. Hopefully I will be in the Bakken in late October.