Highlights From The June, 2015, Agenda, NDIC Hearing Dockets

Highlights from the agenda, NDIC hearing dockets for April.

Whiting is very, very active. For example:

• 23875, Whiting, Sand Creek-Bakken, 14 wells on each of 2 1280-acre units; McKenzie
• 23876, Whiting, Poe-Bakken, 14 wells on 6 1280-acre units; McKenzie

The norm is now 8 -12 wells on 1280-acre units.

Only a few requests for flaring exemption.

Only one risk penalty case.

EOR: 23911, Zargon, EOR, Mackobee-Coulee Madison, Renville County.

Peregrine Petroleum: has six permits in North Dakota; the previous five were back in the early 1990's; this is the first new permit in North Dakota in two decades for Peregrine:

• 23920, Peregrine Petroleum, Covered Bridge-Bakken, establish a 1280-acre unit; 4 wells, McKenzie; Covered Bridge is a 3-section field in south central McKenzie County, far from the sweet spots in McKenzie; Peregrine did have some Bakken wells back in the 1990's; there is a huge Birdbear well in this little section that has produced almost 500,000 bbls since 1983; a stripper well now

Horizontal drilling in the Madison:

• 23925, Souris-Spearfish/Madison, appropriate spacing for horizontal wells, Bottineau
•  23954, Northeast Landa-Spearfish/Madison, appropriate spacing for horizontal wells, Bottineau

XTO with deep pockets:

• 23943, XTO, Capa-Bakken, 12 wells on each of 9 1280-acre units; 2 lease-line wells on an overlapping 260-acre unit, Williams
• 23944, XTO, West Capa-Bakken, 12 wells on each of 12 1280-acre units; 2 lease-line wells on each of 11 overlapping 2560-acre units; Williams
• 23945, XTO, Dollar Joe-Bakken, 12 wells on each of 7 1280-acre units; and 2 lease-line wells on each of 3 overlapping 2560-acre units; Williams
• 23946, XTO, Grinnell-Bakken, 12 wells on each of 18 1280-acre units; 2 lease-line wells on each of 9 overlapping 2560-acre units, McKenzie, Williams

Unusual size drilling units:

• 23916, CLR, Elm Tree-Bakken, terminate some large drilling units (Order # 21151, Order #24889); creata 480-acre unit; create a 1280-acre unit; create 2 1680-acre units; multiple wells on each unit; McKenzie, Mountrail 

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Bakken Well Production Prior To Fracking
A reader asked how productive a Bakken well was before fracking. My unedited, knee-jerk reacion:

Production before fracking. It depends. Some areas the Bakken has some natural fracking and production is decent when comparing to Madison wells, I suppose, but in general the pre-fracking production is pretty poor.

The better the natural fracking, the less proppant that the operators have to use, and that accounts to some extent the variation in the amount of proppant we see from well to well. It looks like in the same well, there can be a substantial difference between natural fracking in a middle Bakken well and a Three Forks lower bench.

I can find some Bakken wells that were drilled horizontally back in the early 1990's but they were not fracked.

An example:

NDIC File No: 13479  Well bore type: Horizontal   
Well Type: OG     Well Status: IA     Status Date: 3/16/1993   Location: NWNE 15-146-102    Latitude: 47.471586     Longitude: -103.65782
Current Operator: PEREGRINE PETROLEUM PARTNERS, LTD
Current Well Name: STENSRUD 1
Total Depth: 11952     Field: COVERED BRIDGE
Spud Date(s):  12/30/1992
Completion Data
   Pool: BAKKEN     Perfs: 10965-11951     Comp: 3/16/1993     Status: AL     Date: 3/16/1993     Spacing: SEC
Cumulative Production Data
   Pool: BAKKEN     Cum Oil: 38,798     Cum MCF Gas: 58692    
Production Test Data
   IP Test Date: 3/16/1993     Pool: BAKKEN     IP Oil: 183     IP MCF: 150     IP Water: 0

So this well was drilled back in 1993 and has produced slightly less than 40,000 bbls total. It is currently producing about 7 days a month for a total of about 75 bbls per month. It's initial production was about 2,000 bbls/month but by the seventh month down to zero; re-worked, back up to 1,000 bbls/month in 1994, but declined to 300 bbls/month pretty quickly.

I don't know how the NDIC feels about an "non-fracked Bakken" well remaining unfracked for over a year (defined as "not completed") but yet producing some oil -- thus letting the operator off the hook for having to complete the well. I don't know if the Peregrine well above is representative but that well seems to be about what I expect when I run across an old Bakken well before fracking.