A Reader Asks Why Newfield Appears To Have Taken Three Wells Off-Line -- May 18, 2015

Over at the Discussion Group a reader asks a question about Newfield's three (3) wells, #28765 - 28767: the wells were completed in initial runs in December and Janaury, but then they appear to have been taken out of production in February. Does anyone know why?

There may be specific reasons peculiar to these three wells why Newfield may have taken them out of production, but the three likely reasons:

• hold back production until prices recover
• required to choke back due to NDIC flaring rules
• required to bring in equipment to "condition" the oil before it can be shipped by rail

My money would be reason #1 -- holding back production until prices recover. It's possible there are operational reasons, so we'll see.

Production profiles:

28765, 2,190, Newfield, Sand Creek Federal 153-96-21-28-3H, t1/15; cum 29K 3/15:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	3-2015	30	12	0	0	23	0	0
BAKKEN	2-2015	28	3226	3598	592	6553	160	6299
BAKKEN	1-2015	30	25653	25010	7185	34991	0	34991

28766, 1,562, Newfield, Sand Creek Federal 153-96-21-28-10h, t1/15; cum 25K 3/15:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	3-2015	30	12	0	0	58	0	0
BAKKEN	2-2015	28	2064	2504	1125	4811	146	4571
BAKKEN	1-2015	31	23082	22438	9605	29329	0	29329

28767, 970, Newfield, Sand Creek Federal 153-96-21-28-2H, t1/15; cum 29K 3/15:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	3-2015	30	12	0	0	14	0	0
BAKKEN	2-2015	28	2839	3284	582	5293	44	5156
BAKKEN	1-2015	31	23884	23520	5869	33345	0	33345
BAKKEN	12-2014	1	2480	2101	0	0	0	0

 Note that production for all three wells was identical in the month of March, 2015: 12 barrels of oil from each well. This is a great example of how operators can control very precisely how much oil they will produce from each well.