Liberty Resources II, LLC, Is Back In The Bakken -- An Update

A great must-read article over at The Bakken Magazine: "Liberty Resources II, LLC, is back in the Bakken."

The article was posted March 19, 2014 -- it's hard to believe I missed it. [Nope, I didn't miss it: here's the original post: Liberty Resources Re-Enters The Bakken.]

This is an update, March 19, 2014:

Following Liberty Resources II LLC’s re-entry into the Williston Basin through a $455 million oil and gas asset acquisition earlier this year, the stage is again set for the Denver-based exploration and production company to shine. Before Liberty sold its assets to Kodiak Oil & Gas last year for $680 million, the team was recognized for its unique, industry-leading well recovery rates. After selling its Williston Basin assets, energy investment firm Riverstone Holdings LLC committed $350 million to Liberty to redeploy its talents in other shale plays. Based on the success of its work in the Williston Basin, Liberty chose to return to the Bakken.

In October 2013, Liberty released a Society of Petroleum Engineers paper explaining its completion strategies titled, “The Value Proposition for Applying Advanced Completion and Stimulation Designs to the Bakken Central Basin.” The paper described the variety of completion methods used in the Bakken. “As a consequence, it is not uncommon for different operators to have over a $2 million difference in their authorizations for expenditures, solely because of the differences in approach to the well’s completion and stimulation design.”

The Liberty SPE paper described the company’s method as one “designed to maximize reservoir contact area and optimize the conductivity.” The methodology can result in roughly $1 million to $2 million in additional costs, but the choice can result in greater production during the well’s first year on production, and, the additional costs are paid for through higher IP rates in just a few months.

During a two-year period, Liberty had drilled and completed 29 wells in the Bakken and Three Forks formations before selling its assets, some of which recorded the highest initial production rates of any wells in the play. With 53,000 net acres spread throughout the North Dakota counties of Williams, McKenzie, Divide and Burke, Liberty will once again have the chance to prove that a completion design focus on conductivity and contact area can result in great wells. 

One can do a search at the blog to see activity regarding Liberty Resources. Here are a couple of items from the NDIC Hearing Dockets, April 24, 2014:

• 22173, Liberty Resources, Stoneview and/or North Tioga-Bakken, create an overlapping 2560-acre unit; twenty-six (26) wells on that unit, Divide
  22174, Liberty Resources, Temple and/or McGregor-Bakken, create three overlapping2560-acre units; twenty-six (26) wells on each of the three units; Williams