A Natural Gas Well To Watch; A Wildcat In North Dakota Produces One Million BOE In Three Years -- October 15, 2015

Updates

August 8, 2017: see reader's comment; apparently "well gave out" -- perhaps the casing collapsed; regardless, well will be plugged and abandoned. 

February 20, 2017: PA -- I guess that's it for this remarkable well. 

October 18, 2015: after posted the original post, a reader sent me four photos of Sharon #1 taken over the past weekend:

Original Post 

Disclaimer: in a long note like this, there will be typographical and factual errors. In addition, I may be "seeing" things that do not exist and/or missing things that do exist. If this information is important to you, go to the source.

A huge "thank you" to the reader for alerting me to this well. (I believe this is the second time the reader has alerted me to this well, but I had forgotten all about it. My bad.)

As noted, a reader notified me of this well. Application/permit by MBI; well transferred to BTA, December, 2011:

• 21235, 0, BTA/MBI, Sharon 1, North Taylor oil field/wildcat, Winnipeg pool, 160 acres spacing unit, t2/12; oil cum 12K; natural gas cum 5,880,579 MCF 8/15;

This was a wildcat well which suggests that the North Taylor oil field was not a named field at the time it was drilled. Note the recent NDIC hearing dockets:

Docket: Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Case 21588, BTA, North Taylor-Winnipeg Gas Pool, redefine field limits, rules, Stark County -- that case was continued to September, 2015 and it was continued to October, 2015 (although I didn't see it there -- either missing or I missed it). Currently the North Taylor field is 320 acres, the south half of section 4-140N-93W.

Previous posts in which this well was discussed or noted:

• December 29, 2012
• December 23, 2012
• June 20, 2012
• June 20, 2012

Last twelve months production:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
WINNIPEG	8-2015	0	0	0	0	238	238	0
WINNIPEG	7-2015	6	101	0	504	25408	24946	0
WINNIPEG	6-2015	30	342	691	792	182769	180459	0
WINNIPEG	5-2015	31	327	225	230	217393	215006	0
WINNIPEG	4-2015	30	318	218	129	203977	201667	0
WINNIPEG	3-2015	31	294	221	99	196482	194095	0
WINNIPEG	2-2015	28	233	453	185	178994	176838	0
WINNIPEG	1-2015	31	405	454	230	197402	195015	0
WINNIPEG	12-2014	31	347	222	33	190836	188449	0
WINNIPEG	11-2014	30	404	444	160	182958	180648	0
WINNIPEG	10-2014	31	354	229	152	184071	181684	0
WINNIPEG	9-2014	30	440	466	175	181347	179037	0
WINNIPEG	8-2014	31	433	458	130	193639	191252	0

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The well is four miles north of Taylor, North Dakota, in the southwest corner of the state, in the northeast corner of Stark County. The well is about 100 miles northwest of the "Sleeping Giant."

Nearest well: Sharon #1 is 1855 feet from the Conoco Stoxen #1 located 592' FNL x 709' FWL of section 9-140N-93W. The Stoxen well was completed as a dry hole in 1964, drilled to the Red River, it TD'ed at 11,718'.

In the graphic below, note how little activity is in this area (as in "none"):

Selected formation depth (in feet) (stratigraphic formations):

• Base Fox Hills: approx. 2000 feet
• Niobrara: not mentioned
• Greenhorn: 4,110
• Lodgepole: 8,667
• Middle Bakken: 9,435
• Three Forks: 9,446
• Red River: 11,430
• Winnipeg Shale: 12,106

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

NDIC File No: 21235
Well Type: OG     Well Status: A     Status Date: 2/25/2012     Wellbore type: Vertical
Location: SWSW 4-140-93     Footages: 660 FSL 680 FWL
Latitude: 46.965195     Longitude: -102.429673
Current Operator: BTA OIL PRODUCERS, LLC
Current Well Name: SHARON #1
Elevation(s): 2309 KB   2285 GR   2285 GL     Total Depth: 12381     Field: NORTH TAYLOR
Spud Date(s):  12/20/2011
Completion Data
   Pool: WINNIPEG     Perfs: 12228-12278     Comp: 2/25/2012     Status: F     Date: 2/28/2012
Cumulative Production Data
   Pool: WINNIPEG     Cum Oil: 11622     Cum MCF Gas: 5880579     Cum Water: 6119
Production Test Data
   IP Test Date: 2/28/2012     Pool: WINNIPEG     IP Oil: 0     IP MCF: 5011     IP Water: 0

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

Data Points / Comments / Things To Ponder

First of all, I'm not going to do the MCF-to-BOE conversion because I often make simple arithmetic errors. However, this is a lot of natural gas. I would appreciate it if someone smarter than I do the calculation (in the comments section, is fine; and anonymous is fine).

Note how remote this well is. Also note that all this natural gas is being captured and sold. There is an obvious question to be asked. In an earlier post, there were indications that this well was hooked up to an MDU natural gas pipeline.

Remember recent news item: CLR and Badlands NGLs; petrochemical plant.

Recent news item: wildcatting for natural gas in Ohio.  

Those incredible natural gas wells in Ohio and Pennsylvania are horizontal wells and fracked. This well was vertical and not fracked.

The NDIC hearing docket to define a new North Taylor-Winnepeg gas field. 

This natural gas well is 1855 feet from a dry Red River well that was drilled in 1964.  


  Classical Gas, Mason Williams