The "Halo Effect" Of Fracking?

Take a look at this:

NDIC File No: 19323    
Well Type: OG     Well Status: A     Status Date: 5/20/2011     Wellbore type: Horizontal
Location: NENE 29-150-95    
Current Operator: QEP ENERGY COMPANY
Current Well Name: THOMPSON 1-29/32H
Field: GRAIL
Spud Date(s):  1/25/2011 
Completion Data
   Pool: BAKKEN        Spacing: 2SEC
Cumulative Production Data
   Pool: BAKKEN     Cum Oil: 456217     Cum MCF Gas: 593213     Cum Water: 102335
Production Test Data
   IP Test Date: 8/2/2011     Pool: BAKKEN     IP Oil: 2521     IP MCF: 2908     IP Water: 842

Monthly Production Data

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	1-2014	31	9137	9147	4760	10858	10437	0
BAKKEN	12-2013	29	10769	10789	5078	11574	11199	0
BAKKEN	11-2013	30	13618	13618	6363	16484	16076	0
BAKKEN	10-2013	31	16372	16422	14067	20531	20110	0
BAKKEN	9-2013	29	7190	7153	5170	7555	7167	0
BAKKEN	8-2013	17	3736	4132	542	228	0	0
BAKKEN	7-2013	31	8721	8291	1337	15329	14908	0
BAKKEN	6-2013	30	8840	8833	1300	14604	14604	0
BAKKEN	5-2013	31	9438	9532	1333	13943	13943	0

Note the jump in production from September, 2013, to October, 2013. It could be explained any number of reasons.

Now, note this well. The horizontal of this well runs parallel to the above well with typical spacing:

NDIC File No: 24949    
Well Type: OG     Well Status: A     Status Date: 9/26/2013     Wellbore type: Horizontal
Location: LOT1 5-149-95    
Current Operator: QEP ENERGY COMPANY
Current Well Name: PATSY 2-29-32BH
Field: GRAIL
Spud Date(s):  3/13/2013
Completion Data
   Pool: BAKKEN     Perfs: 11129-21124     Comp: 9/26/2013     Status: F     Date: 9/26/2013     Spacing: 2SEC
Cumulative Production Data
   Pool: BAKKEN     Cum Oil: 94356     Cum MCF Gas: 147516     Cum Water: 11868
Production Test Data
   IP Test Date: 9/26/2013     Pool: BAKKEN     IP Oil: 2274     IP MCF: 3608     IP Water: 730

Monthly Production Data

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	1-2014	26	15175	15263	566	25279	0	24951
BAKKEN	12-2013	30	20344	20259	2119	31845	0	31445
BAKKEN	11-2013	30	20655	20743	2152	31435	0	31029
BAKKEN	10-2013	31	29248	29037	3822	44660	0	44239
BAKKEN	9-2013	6	8934	8741	3209	14297	0	14110

This second well, whose horizontal parallels the horizontal of the first well (they lie opposite each other, heel-to-toe, and toe-to-heel), was fracked in September, 2013. The bump in production for the first well occurred from September to October, 2013.

Amber Renee Appears To Be Back On-Line -- October 10, 2014

Updates

February 24, 2015: it appears Amber Renee is off-line again:

• 18408, IA/1,945, Murex, Amber Renee 25-36H, t2/10; cum 821K 12/14:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	12-2014	20	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	11-2014	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	10-2014	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	9-2014	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	8-2014	2	51	133	0	61	0	53

October 10, 2014: it appears the Amber Renee 25-36H is back on-line. After no production since 1/14, the well produced 51 bbls of oil over two days in August, 2014. 

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	8-2014	2	51	133	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	7-2014	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	6-2014	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Original Post

In the Sanish, Murex has taken the Amber Renee off-line (as of January, 2014). It is now listed as "inactive." Could it be related to activity planned for the Jacob Daniel well south of the Amber Renee? Right now I don't see any other activity on the GIS map server.

[For some background to Murex, a reader noted that the company was featured in a Forum article some years ago. I remember that article and have it linked elsewhere on the blog. Here is the original story.]

The Amber Renee is a huge well. It was spud December 21, 2009, and drilling stopped on January 12, 2010. A frac tree was installed in May, 2010. It looks like it was fracked with 14 perforations and with slightly less than 900,000 lbs of sand. It was tested February 27, 2010, with an IP of 1,945. With a TD of 16,000 feet it extended slightly longer than a short lateral (but was planned as a long lateral based on a 1280-acre drilling unit) in the Sanish. A marked increase in gas (10,000+ units) was noted in the lateral. Interpretation of other data suggested a natural fracture. At 16,050 feet there were indications that there might be communication with a neighboring well (Jacob Daniel 25-36H, now Jacob Daniel 25-36H-RE, a short lateral) and the drilling was stopped.

• 18408, 1,945, Murex, Amber Renee 25-36H, t2/10; cum 821K 8/14;

Anticipated formation tops:

• Lodgepole: 9,000 feet
• Bakken shale: 9,748 feet
• Bakken play (top middle Bakken member): 9,761 feet
• Top of 2nd Bakken shale: 9,795 feet

Compare those depths with Madison, again, anticipated formation tops:

• Kibbey_Lime: 7,656 feet
• Madison: 7,817 feet
• Charles salt: 7,904 feet

The last sundry form regarding operation of the well is dated January 31, 2011, for reclamation of the well site.

Selected Production of The Amber Renee

Most recent eight months:

BAKKEN	1-2014	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	12-2013	30	307	272	5	449	403	0
BAKKEN	11-2013	30	6697	6702	57	9874	9874	0
BAKKEN	10-2013	31	6994	6999	52	14292	14292	0
BAKKEN	9-2013	30	6799	6809	52	10402	10402	0
BAKKEN	8-2013	31	7512	7555	55	11286	10919	367
BAKKEN	7-2013	31	7971	8001	67	11733	11733	0
BAKKEN	6-2013	30	8148	8333	62	11581	11581	0

First six months of 2012:

BAKKEN	6-2012	26	7123	7134	92	6544	6544	0
BAKKEN	5-2012	31	14538	14675	173	15905	15905	0
BAKKEN	4-2012	30	15449	15366	207	16674	16674	0
BAKKEN	3-2012	29	16815	16860	243	15692	15692	0
BAKKEN	2-2012	28	18914	18807	318	13102	13102	0
BAKKEN	1-2012	24	9138	9156	238	5632	5632	0

Early on:

BAKKEN	8-2010	31	29376	29979	46	11806	11806	0
BAKKEN	7-2010	31	38180	37815	93	18822	18822	0
BAKKEN	6-2010	30	38749	38813	595	18096	18096	0
BAKKEN	5-2010	27	15747	15575	0	5760	5760	0
BAKKEN	4-2010	30	32794	32971	21	13730	13730	0
BAKKEN	3-2010	28	34169	33823	0	9676	9676	0
BAKKEN	2-2010	28	7112	6404	22	939	939	0

***********************************************

The Jacob Daniel: Same 1280-Acre Drilling Unit As The Amber Renee

The Jacob Daniel was mentioned above:

• 16839, 864, Murex, Jacob Daniel 25-36H-RE, t1/08; cum 452K 8/14; F as of 8/14; short lateral (13,719 feet, but 1280-acre drilling unit)

What did the production profile of the Jacob Daniel look like the months before the Amber Renee was fracked and the three months after? Remember, they stopped drilling the Amber Renee when there were indications it was communicating with the Jacob Daniel, o/a January 12, 2010:

BAKKEN	9-2010	30	8635	8713	126	4391	4391	0
BAKKEN	8-2010	31	9049	9220	441	3744	3744	0
BAKKEN	7-2010	15	3102	2382	1473	1692	1692	0
BAKKEN	6-2010	8	60	0	0	1	1	0
BAKKEN	5-2010	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	4-2010	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	3-2010	31	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	2-2010	1	7	225	0	1	1	0
BAKKEN	1-2010	14	844	913	0	370	370	0
BAKKEN	12-2009	31	5129	5715	0	2889	2889	0
BAKKEN	11-2009	30	5297	5338	0	3072	3072	0
BAKKEN	10-2009	31	5285	4793	0	2421	2421	0
BAKKEN	9-2009	30	5218	5317	0	2872	2872	0

It is noteworthy that monthly production increased after fracking of the Amber Renee (from 5,300 bbls/month to 9,000 bbls/month, which soon leveled off back where it was (5,000 to 6,000 bbls/month). (This probably has nothing to do with neighboring fracking, but simply pent-up production while the well was off-line.)  It looks like the Jacob Daniel was a planned long lateral but very high gas was encountered and drilling ceased shorter than planned, slightly shorter than a typical short lateral. This well was spud in 2007; it looks like there were plans (as early as 2009) to re-enter this well and extend it as originally planned but, if that was done, I don't see evidence of that either in the well file or the GIS map server.

*****************************

Chandler James

By the way, the Chandler James is in the same 1280-acre drilling unit as the two wells above, and is in the same 640-acre section as the Amber Renee:

• 17263, 3,124, Murex, Chandler James 25-36H, Sanish, t10/08; cum 979K 1/14;

Permits -- February, 2014

FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY, 2014 (ONE MONTH) 
Note: this was late getting posted; note this is for February, not March.

Active rigs: Averaged about 190 active rigs, many of them drilling saltwater disposal wells.

Permits by operator (selected):

• American Eagle: 0
• BR: 14 (up 3 from previous month)
• CLR: 7 (down from 21 last month)
• Emerald Oil: 1 (down from 8 last month)
• EOG: 13 (10 last month)
• ERF: 0
• Fidelity: 1 (down from 8 last month)
• Hess: 18 (down from 24 last month)
• HRC: 1 (down from 15 last month)
• KOG: 0 (down from 16)
• MRO: 1 (down from 9)
• Murex: 1
• Newfield: 3 (down from 9)
• Oasis: 30 (huge increase from 14 last month)
• OXY USA: 2 (down from 10)
• Petro-Hunt: 9 (down from 14)
• QEP: 12
• Slawson: 5
• SM Energy: 10
• Statoil: 4
• Triangle: 0
• Whiting: 12 (down from 19)
• WPX: 2 (down from 7)
• XTO: 19 (down from 23 last month)

Permits by county (Williams was the big mover in February):

• Divide: 8 (down from 11)
• Dunn: 22 (down from 50)
• McKenzie: 47 (down from 101)
• Mountrail: 36 (down from 44)
• Williams: 48 (up from 15)

Permits by field, selected:

• Alger: 0
• Banks:0
• Bear Den: 0
• Big Bend: 3
• Blue Buttes: 0
• Chimney Butte: 0
• Eagle Nest: 1
• Elidah:  12
• Grail:  12
• Little Knife: 4
• Parshall: 13
• Poe:  0
• Sanish:  6
• Siverston: 4

Permits for wildcat wells:  2

Permits: 434 -- on track for 2,684 permits for calendar year, which would be a record, but down significantly from projection of 2,990 at end of January.

Disclaimer: summary totals from my personal database; not from NDIC (original source was the NDIC). There may be errors in the data and there may be typographical errors. 

Projected Permits For 2014

As of March 31 (updated after original post) for this year and the previous two years, this many permits have been issued, and this is how many permits were projected at that time:

• 2014: 685 -- 2,778 (rounds to 2800)
• 2013: 619 -- 2,539 (rounds to 2500)
• 2012: 520 -- 2,132 (rounds to 2100)

*********************************** 

A Note to the Granddaughters

The LaCrosse Tribune is reporting:

TUNNEL CITY— Perry Schmitt describes himself as pro-mining but blames the frac sand mine across the highway from his home for driving down the asking price by more than $25,000, to $189,000.

His neighbors made out better. Kari Curran and her husband sold 130 acres for $1.5 million to a company affiliated with Unimin Mining Corp., operator of the mine. The property was previously valued at about $225,000.

“It was kind of bittersweet,” Curran said. “That was the house we raised our kids in.”

Two comments.

I doubt this is "news" to most folks. I know that newly constructed government subsidized housing going up in a neighborhood can lower the value of neighboring homes. Life is tough all over. Be thankful one has a $200,000 home +/- $20,000.

A lot of military folks have never owned a home, moving every two to three years. Soldiers have it bad; US Marines have it the worse. Some "military children" have never lived in one place more than two or three years. I think my wife said she went to seven or eight different schools by the time she graduated from high school. Our older daughter went to seven different schools by the time she graduated from high school (and some of them were pretty marginal) if you include pre-school. I don't think I remember "a house that we raised our kids in." For $1.5 million I could probably get used to that particular loss pretty quickly.

Yes, I'm being catty. Sarcastic. Mean. Whatever. It's a nice human interest story but that's about all.

BR Reports A "High-IP" Well; WPX And Whiting Report Nice Wells Monday

Active rigs:

	3/30/2014	03/30/2013	03/30/2012	03/30/2011	03/30/2010
Active Rigs	194	188	205	168	104

Wells coming off the confidential list over the weekend, Monday:

Monday, March 31, 2014

• None.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

• 21708, 2,808, BR, Franklin 44-36MBH, Little Knife, t2/14; cum 6K 1/14;
• 25731, 2,291, Whiting, Edie 41-13HR, Timber Creek, t10/13; 61K cum l/14;
• 25829, drl, BR, Sunline 21-1MBH-5SH, Clear Creek, no production data,
• 26072, drl, Hess, BL-Iverson 155-95-1819H-4, Beaver Lodge, no production data,
• 26163, 1,200, WPX, Brunsell 9-4HB, Van Hook, t12/13; cum 37K 1/14;
• 26463, drl, MRO, Reed 24-35TFH, Reunion Bay, no production data,

Saturday, March 29, 2014

• 26080, drl, American Eagle, Braelynne 2-2N-163-101, Colgan, no production data,

********************************

25731, see above, Whiting, Edie 41-13HR, Timber Creek:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
1-2014	8799	5555
12-2013	12021	9806
11-2013	8006	11471
10-2013	31715	18548
9-2013	97	1738

26163, see above, WPX, Brunsell 9-4HB, Van Hook:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
2-2014	17214	8439
1-2014	17887	6540
12-2013	1382	0

Some Wildcats To Watch -- North Of Minot

There are two Madison oil fields north of Minot, Norma and Smith. Sitting between them and moving south are several new wildcat wells, which are probably going to be Madison wells. One is already producing. These are probably about 35 miles northwest of Minot:

• 26508, PNC, Fram Operating, Peterson #1, Norma, canceled 11/6/15 during price slump;
• 25580, PNC, Fram Operating, Murphy #2, Wildcat, canceled 6/16/15 during price slump;
• 25472, AB/72, Fram Operating, Schlak 3, Norma, t11/13; cum 6K 9/15; looks like it will be abandoned;
• 21972, PNC, Fram Operating, Goettle 1, Wildcat, canceled 12/11/14 during price slump;
• 19783, SI/NC, Fram Operating, Schlak 2, Norma,
• 19782, PNC, Fram Operating, Schlak 1, Norma,
• 19781, dry, Fram Operating, Helmers 1, Wildcat, dry as of 3/16/14
• 19474, PA/12, Fram Operating, Nailor Trust 1, Wildcat, t6/14; producing nothing; this will likely be abandoned;

For a geological description of the Madison in North Dakota, click here for a pdf. The Madison is more than 700 feet thick in some places in North Dakota. It will be interesting to see if "Bakken technology" changes the future of conventional (non-tight) oil; it's counter-intuitive, but twenty years from now, we might have the answer.

The Enerplus Patriot Pad: Honor, Grace, Courage, And Pride

Updates

October 3, 2024: production updated. 

September 25, 2021: production updated. 

May 18, 2020: production data updated. This is where these wells will be tracked going forward. 

January 12, 2015: the production numbers for these four wells have been updated elsewhere. The original post may or may not be updated going forward.
 

Original Post

Enerplus Resources has a well pad in the Spotted Horn oil field with some interesting well names.

I've always assumed Spotted Horn was named after Chief Spotted Horn of the Assiniboine mentioned in the journal of Rudolph Friedrich Kurz, 1851 - 1852. Families names and genealogy of native Americans have always been a challenge for me, and if I do not read of their history on a regular basis, I forget the history.

Be that as it may, as I was saying has interesting names for four new wells in Spotted Horn oil field:

• 23541,1,545, Enerplus Resources, Honor 150-94-06B-18H TF, Spotted Horn, t6/14; cum 704K 12/20; off line 5/20; returned to production 9/20; cum 726K 7/21; cum 748K 4/22; cum 766K 12/22; cum 788K 8/23; off line; new wells on pad being fracked;
  
• 23542, 1,007, Enerplus Resources, Grace 150-94-06B-07H, Spotted Horn, t2/13; cum 371K 12/20; of the four, this is the only standard two-section lateral; the other three are the much-talked about, seldom-seen three-section laterals; was off line 4/20; but seems to be back on line 5/20; cum 382K 7/21; cum 396K 4/22; cum 410K 12/22; cum 426K 11/23; off line; new wells on pad being fracked;
• 26608, 1,601, Enerplus Resources, Courage 150-94-06A-18H, Spotted Horn, t6/14; cum 655K 12/20; cum 669K 7/21; cum 682K 4/22; cum 697K 12/22; um 716K 11/23; new wells on pad being fracked;
• 26609, 1,703, Enerplus Resources, Pride 150-94-06A-18H TF, Spotted Horn, t10/14; cum 564K 12/20; was off line 4/20 but seems to be back on line 5/20; cum 575K 7/21; cum 605K 4/22; cum 635K 12/22; cum 661K 11/23; new wells on pad being fracked;
• 40432, 2,539, Enerplus, Fearless 150-94-06A-18H-LL, appears to have been complete 8/24;
  

By the way, there was a "Mrs Spotted Horn Bull," a Hunkpapa Sioux who provided a fascinating oral history of that fateful day in June, 1876.