Random Note On The Brooklyn Oil Field In The Bakken

The Brooklyn oil field has always fascinated me. I follow it here. At the list of fields I follow, this was the blurb I posted about the Brooklyn oil field:

A small, non-descript field NW of Williston; "owned" by CLR; excellent example of how an operator systematically drilled one entire field with one rig; holding the entire field by production within a year or so; has received the most comments of any field. 

The entire field was initially zoned for 1280-acre drilling. There were no 640-acre spacing units. There are a number of 2560-acre overlapping units now, so the entire field is pretty much 1280- and 2560-acre spaced.

There are a number of reasons why this field fascinates me, not least of which it appears to be entirely "owned" by CLR, so one was able to follow easily the strategy this company was using to develop this "type" of field. For example: it appeared that the operator methodically drilled a well in every section, simply moving the same rig down the road a mile each time. There are very few multi-well pads yet drilled in this field, but all drilling units appear to be held by production. This is an excellent example of a huge amount of seed corn being planted / CAPEX being expended, for long-term payoff.

In addition, CLR might have predicted this would be a good field, but in my mind it was not all that exciting in the early days of the boom. One can now follow the improving quality of the wells over time.

And now, a new wrinkle: a chance to follow the quality of wells in the middle Bakken and the Upper Three Forks drilled in the very same field, and drilled by the very same operator.

We start with this well, drilled in August, 2011, and still no fracking data in the file report. The production data is such it is hard to believe this well was not fracked but....

• 20491, A, CLR, Charleston 1-22H, Three Forks; F; cum 106K 3/14; 6 miles southeast of Epping, North Dakota; it is the first Three Forks Formation lateral drilled in this township and is near the center of the Brooklyn field, west of the Nesson Anticline; background gas as high as 2,900; a 6' target situated from 20' to 26' below the lower Bakken shale; placed on a pump in the summer of 2012; no fracking data in the file although it was completed 8/11;   

Now, these two wells recently reported:

• 23013, 876, CLR, Sacramento Federal 4-10H, Brooklyn, middle Bakken, t4/14; cum 16K 4/14; a max gas of 10,000 units; frack data not yet available
• 23014, 865, CLR, Sacramento Federal 5-10H, Brooklyn, Three Forks, a max gas of 2,783; t4/14; cum 16K 4/14; frack data not yet available;

A bit more on the gas units for #23013: upon entering the target zone, background gases averaged 1,129 units with a max of 2,924 units. From 13,000' to 15,000' the background gases average 997 units with a max of 2,479 units. From 15,000' to 17,000' the background gases averaged 1,184 units with a max of 2,386 units. From 17,000' to 19,000', background gases averaged 1,961 units with a max of 9,347 units. From 19,000' to 21,110', the background gases averaged 3,807 units with a max of 10,000 units. And then, this, pushing up at 20,500 feet, while drilling ahead, high gases was encountered at around 19,065', with gases increasing to an average of 5,581 units with a max of 10,000 units. The geologist state that the increase of gases could be affected b the foam that is coming across the shakers. After the wiper trip a max gas of 10,000 unit was seen with a 2' to 5' flare

I don't look at a lot of geology reports out of the Bakken, but I look at a fair amount from wells that interest me for some reason.  I do not recall gas units this high although it's possible there were some in the EOG wells in the Parshall. I do think I would recall if I had seen any with gas units approaching 10,000.

Note, that #23014 is also a Three Forks well, again with high gas pressure being encountered.