Bakken 101 -- A Closer Look At An Early EOG Well; Periods Of Production Variability

Earlier I posted the early EOG Bakken wells. I was curious to see the production history. Below are three periods of production for:

• 16346, 1,800, EOG, Bartelson 1-3H, s9/26/06, t11/17/06, cum 422K 9/13;

For all periods, these are the columns

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare

Note: a pump was placed on this well in 2007, so the changes in production below are not related to a pump.

First period in early 2008 shows the decline rate:

BAKKEN	6-2008	30	8617	8900	447	3157	0	3009
BAKKEN	5-2008	30	8750	8403	683	3169	0	3020
BAKKEN	4-2008	30	10073	11057	1338	3512	0	3362
BAKKEN	3-2008	30	7154	6865	542	2675	0	2526
BAKKEN	2-2008	29	10661	10685	564	3746	0	3601
BAKKEN	1-2008	31	12136	12223	621	4262	0	4107
BAKKEN	12-2007	31	12749	12960	4	4451	0	4296

This next period is late 2010 going into early 2011. There is a sundry report received in late 2010 suggesting that EOG was going to "clean out" frack sand from the well.

BAKKEN	4-2011	29	2593	2553	199	1757	1543	69
BAKKEN	3-2011	31	3028	3053	242	1848	1693	0
BAKKEN	2-2011	28	3153	3153	238	1723	1584	0
BAKKEN	1-2011	22	2384	2359	582	1231	1122	0
BAKKEN	12-2010	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	11-2010	26	598	647	114	368	271	0
BAKKEN	10-2010	28	1570	1439	160	1492	1368	0
BAKKEN	9-2010	30	2620	2619	324	2680	2531	0

Finally, the third period that caught my eye, late last year. I did not see any sundry reports that might account for the production increase.

BAKKEN	1-2013	31	2694	2682	493	1293	1143	0
BAKKEN	12-2012	31	2925	2915	909	1402	1262	0
BAKKEN	11-2012	30	494	494	4437	305	168	0
BAKKEN	10-2012	23	285	327	4427	140	28	13
BAKKEN	9-2012	30	356	334	4514	277	138	0
BAKKEN	8-2012	25	439	499	2802	571	462	0
BAKKEN	7-2012	31	2212	2187	3103	2740	2435	151
BAKKEN	6-2012	30	2903	2918	949	2848	2674	25

By the way: note that some flaring occurred during this period. There are at least two reasons that flaring occurs even if the well is hooked up to a natural gas gathering and processing system: a) the natural gas gathering / processing plant is saturated; and/or, b) the natural gas processing plant is "down" for routine maintenance. It is my understanding that oil companies are allowed flaring under such conditions. The only way to completely eliminate flaring when the processing plant is saturated/undergoing maintenance, is to shut in the well. There is no guarantee that a shut-in well will return to its former glory; shutting down a well, even temporarily, I am led to understand, could damage the well significantly.