Random Note From Halcon On Decline Rates In The Bakken; Staggering

During the Q&A period of the conference call, a question was asked about the decline rates in the Bakken. The analyst noted that "everyone" in the Bakken is improving production because operators are learning more and more about completion techniques. The analyst asked when Halcon would be sharing their new graphs with updated decline rates. Here was Halcon's answer:

The improvements have been coming so fast and furious, we really can't keep up with it.

We tend to not put out updated type curves until we have significant history on a well. So certainly, some time over the next couple of quarters. But that field [the Fort Berthold area in North Dakota], as you know, has been so drilled in every area that you need type curves in every area. And for our company, we probably have about 6 or 7 type curves.

But then we'd have to start looking at type curves with slickwater fracs and without slickwater fracs, and type curves where you have tight spacing and type curves where you don't have tight spacing.

What I can say is that the initial wave of completion design modifications that we've done from the north end of the field doubled our IPs and our 30-day rates, and down the south end, increased them by 30% to 50%.

That should yield a much higher type curve, but we're just not prepared to put those out there. You can take our old type curves and just assume that the new ones will be higher.

Music to my ears. We've been blogging that since the beginning. 

Earlier in the presentation, this is what Floyd Wilson, the CEO, had to say:

All current wells are dramatically outperforming well drilling completed using previous methods and drilled by previous operators. Most of all -- most all of our 2014 wells will be drilled from pads. Cost reductions should continue.

At Fort Berthold, and this is really important news to us, that Fort Berthold downspacing results have been positive -- early but positive. Three (3) middle Bakken wells drilled on 660-foot spacing came in at nearly 2,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day average per well. And after several weeks, those wells are holding up as expected, with that IP rate as a start.

At another site at Fort Berthold, we set a new company record IP rate of over 3,900 barrel of oil equivalent per day.

At South Fort Berthold, our first slickwater fracs were a significant improvement over nearby wells on a 60-day rate basis. They were nearly 60% better than the nearby wells over the first 60 days.

At North Fort Berthold, our first slickwater-frac-ed well was a 30% improvement over nearby wells.

So this slickwater technique and this concentration of proppant and more complex fracturing, which is our target and others' targets here, seems to be working.

The downspacing issues in the Williston basin could be really important for our company and others. Our total location inventory in the basin could be nearly 1,000 if middle Bakken and Three Forks downspacing testing continues to be fruitful.