After declining to an 11-year low in February, the number of nominated acres for the May North Dakota Department of Trust Lands oil and gas lease auction rebounded seven-fold; however, as with most of the recent Trust Lands auctions, a majority of the nominated acres are outside the traditional Bakken petroleum system core area.
A total of 18,133 acres in 221 tracts were nominated for the May auction, up from the 2,552 acres leased in the February auction, although all of the nominated tracks still have to be vetted by a variety of North Dakota agencies. Of those 18,133 nominated acres, 3,479 acres, just 19 percent, are in the traditional Bakken system counties of Divide, Dunn, McKenzie, Mountrail and Williams. The remaining 81 percent of the acres are either on the fringe or outside of the Bakken petroleum system and extend from Renville to Bowman counties.I'm actually looking forward to what the fringe might bring.
The most interesting comment in that short blurb above: including Divide County as one of the five "traditional Bakken system counties." I've never included Divide County in the "traditional Bakken system" in North Dakota. I assume the better wells in Divide County will be the Three Forks.
The link was originally posted over at the discussion group.