Corinthian Exploration With A Nice Spearfish Well

Original Post

When you look at the ticket stub below from the NDIC, see if you notice something about a Spearfish well that you often don't see in a middle Bakken well.

NDIC File No: 23704     API No: 33-009-02278-00-00     CTB No: 222257
Well Type: OG     Well Status: A     Status Date: 2/13/2013     Wellbore type: Horizontal
Location: SWNW 2-163-77     Footages: 1980 FNL 800 FWL     Latitude: 48.975171     Longitude: -100.617541
Current Operator: CORINTHIAN EXPLORATION (USA) CORP
Current Well Name: CORINTHIAN BOWERS 5-2 1-H
Elevation(s): 1675 KB   1660 GR   1660 GL     Total Depth: 5784     Field: NORTH SOURIS
Spud Date(s):  11/26/2012
Casing String(s): 8.625" 524'   5.5" 5894'  
Completion Data
   Pool: SPEARFISH     Perfs: 3604-5855     Comp: 2/13/2013     Status: AL     Date: 2/16/2013     Spacing: ICO
Cumulative Production Data
   Pool: SPEARFISH     Cum Oil: 18909     Cum MCF Gas: 5898     Cum Water: 16354
Production Test Data
   IP Test Date: 2/16/2013     Pool: SPEARFISH     IP Oil: 141     IP MCF: 0     IP Water: 207

Monthly Production Data

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
SPEARFISH	6-2013	30	3466	3676	3352	1555	0	1555
SPEARFISH	5-2013	31	3082	3101	2806	1203	0	1203
SPEARFISH	4-2013	30	4672	4604	3712	1473	0	1473
SPEARFISH	3-2013	31	5285	5321	3732	1126	0	1126
SPEARFISH	2-2013	16	2404	2060	2752	541	0	541

Comments:

At 19,000 bbls in the first 4.5 months, this Spearfish well looks to be as good as a middle Bakken well.

The total vertical depth of this well was 3,015 feet (no typo). A typical Bakken well will go down 9,000 to 11,000 feet. The total depth was 5,900 feet, so the horizontal, including the kick-off point/curve was about 3,000 feet. The "standard" Bakken well will run a horizontal three times that long, 9,000 feet, or almost two miles.

It was fracked with 167,551 lbs of sand (no typo), 19 stages. Total water used was 1,660 bbls (about 70,000 gallons). A typical Bakken wells uses about 4 million gallons of water, and about 4 million lbs of sand (EOG is testing with 10 million lbs of sand. Again, look at the amount of sand (almost none, compared to a Bakken well; and the water, almost none).  According to a very unreliable source: A water tanker truck, of the largest 18 wheeler kind, can carry about 30 tons of water. Which is about 8000 gallons. So, was this about 10 truckloads of water?  A Bakken well in comparison would require 500 truckloads of water. [This was corrected; see first comment.]

Disclaimer: I may be completely wrong on everything I said on this page. I often read things incorrectly. I often screw up simple arithmetic; don't even get me started on math. 

But that's not all. What else did you notice about this Spearfish well compared to a typical middle Bakken well?

Bingo! Good for you. I saw that, too: minimal decline rate. Production did decline but not all that much on a percentage basis. My hunch is that it has probably already leveled out. 

Again, I may be completely wrong on everything I said on this page. I often read things incorrectly. I often screw up simple arithmetic; don't even get me started on math. Let me know if I'm seeing something wrong.

Oh, one more thing. How many days did they have to pay for the rig? It was spud November 26, 2012; the rig was released December 1, 2012. That's barely enough time to drive into Williston and back to get a McDonald's hamburger before the well was completed. Five, six days?