Whiting's "U" Designation In Today's Daily Activity Report -- February 17, 2015

Disclaimer: this was done very quickly; there may be errors. I will come back later and make corrections if necessary. 

On today's daily activity report, there were two Whiting wells with the designation "PHU."

A reader asked about that designation.

I will see if I can find some examples to confirm my hunch but for the moment the spacing units on the GIS map should suffice. [Update: there is an example, near the end of this post.]

The two permits:

• 30735, loc, Whiting, Privratsky 41-28PHU, Bell,
• 20736, loc, Whiting, Privratsky 44-21PHU, Bell,

Here's the approximate location for these two wells (they are not yet shown on the GIS map, so this is my guess); they are both "Bell" wells, so it means they both run north:

This area is spaced for 1280-acre drilling units:

But the area has also been spaced for 2560-acre drilling units:

Whenever I see a "U" in the name of a Bakken well (such as "ULW" used by another operator for 2560-acre spaced wells), I assume the "U" means a well in a 2560-acre (overlapping) unit.

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Confirmation

Here's an example of a Whiting well with the "PHU" designation and confirming that it's a 2560-acre spaced well:

• 30342, loc, Whiting, Obrigewitch 41-29PHU, Bell, the well file is available and shows that this permit is for a 2560-acre spaced well; sections 28/29/32/33 - 140-99;

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"ULW" Designation

The "ULW" designation is used by BR for 2560-acre spaced wells.