The Thronson Wells Have Been Fracked -- December 25, 2015

This is a bit out of my comfort zone because I have made errors before on this topic, but it appears the geologists in the Bakken are modifying their stratigraphic descriptions/pools in the narrative portion of their reports, and in some cases on the scout tickets.

[With regard to my errors in the past regarding stratigraphy in the Williston Basin, see this post from November 24, 2012.]

Before reading further, you may want to re-familiarize yourself with the stratigraphy in Montana-North Dakota. When you get to the link, use the "magnifying glass" to enlarge the graphic.

Then using the "arrows" on your keyboard, scroll all the way to the right to see the periods and the eras. We are interested in four or five of the seven periods in the Paleozoic era. Note the Devonian period. Or even more importantly, note the Mississippian-Devonian demarcation.

Now, scroll to the left to find the Williston Basin. This can be a bit tricky; you will have to scroll to the top to find the Williston Basin and then back down to the Mississippian-Devonian boundary.

Note that the Bakken formation (upper, middle, lower) is right at the demarcation. The Three Forks underlies the Bakken and is entirely within the Devonian period in the Williston Basin (at least according to this graphic).

This is not a hard-and-fast rule, and I'm not seeing it everywhere but it seems to me there me be a subtle change in the way the geologists are recording their observations. I first noticed it two days ago when a scout ticket said the target pool was the "Devonian." When I looked at the geologist's narrative/permit application, the target was the upper Three Forks (the first bench). [I won't be able to find the original post, but years ago I made the observation and posted it that it appeared that at one time -- long ago -- some geologists were routinely labeling wells that were targeting the Bakken as "Devonian" wells. I think one can go back and find old Devonian wells that we would now be calling middle Bakken wells. My hunch is that when geologists in Williston sit down to lunch they interchange Mississippian and middle Bakken, and Devonian and Three Forks.]

Here we see it again, in the narrative for #29671, a Three Forks B2 well, a CLR Thronson well. This is from the geologist's narrative of this well: "... with the objective target of the late Devonian Three Forks B2. The well plan ... with a kickoff point .. in the Mississippian Lodgepole ... approximately 80 feet below the Three Forks formation."

Note: the Lodgepole is clearly within the Mississippian.

The report continues with a nice description of the vertical depth of the various formations, from the False Bakken through the Three Forks Internal 1/B2.

When #29671 comes off the confidential list, it will be interesting to see if the pool is listed as the Bakken or the Devonian (mixing apples and oranges).

[By the way, at wiki, the "Carboniferous period" replaces the "Pennsylvanian" and the "Mississippian" periods. This is important to me and probably no one else because of all the work I put into annotating Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale. 

• In the second (later) half of the Carboniferous period, we first see the Sauropsids (early birds, reptiles). This was just before the Age of the Dinosaurs. Technically it was an era. The Era of Dinosaurs, the Mesozoic Era.
• In the early Carboniferous period: the amphibians appear.
• The lobefish or lungfish was noted at the Devonian-Silurian boundary.
• Ray-finned fish were seen in the earliest Silurian.
• Sharks were noted in the middle Ordovician.

Enough of that for now; all of that to help me keep track of things.]

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The Thronson Federal Wells

These wells are now back on conf status, having been taken off SI/NC status. They are producing and runs have been reported; fracking data can be found at FracFocus, for those interested (at the link, simply click on "Find A Well" and type in the first few 10 API digits):

• 29671, conf, CLR, Thronson Federal 6-21H2, Alkali Creek, Three Forks B2, API: 33-061-03353, trip gases as high as 9,550 units with 20 - 30' gas flare; "gas in the clean Dolomite zone above the Internal 2/B3 produced more gas & oil shows versus drilling the upper target zone and close to the Internal 1/B2 zone. Oil shows were pretty consistent throughout the lateral section, but displayed more in the lower drilling zones; ,
• 29670, conf, CLR, Thronson Federal 7-21H, Alkali Creek, API: 33-061-03352,
• 29669, conf, CLR, Sorenson 6-16H2, Three Forks B2, Alkali Creek, API: 33-061-03351,
• 29668, conf, CLR, Thronson Federal 8-21H1, Alkali Creek, API: 33-061-03350,
• 29667, conf, CLR, Thronson Federal 9-21H, API: 33-061-03349,

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29671, conf, CLR, Thronson Federal 6-21H2, Alkali Creek:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
10-2015	19430	28740
9-2015	19431	26534
8-2015	15509	21887
7-2015	1456	666

29670, conf, CLR, Thronson Federal 7-21H, Alkali Creek:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
10-2015	15840	24605
9-2015	17935	27922
8-2015	24216	37093
7-2015	624	1004

29669, conf, CLR, Sorenson 6-16H2, Alkali Creek:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
10-2015	11131	15799
9-2015	12477	17096
8-2015	17431	23407
7-2015	392	215

29668, conf, CLR, Thronson Federal 8-21H1, Alkali Creek:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
10-2015	13197	19070
9-2015	20613	30876
8-2015	22480	32272
7-2015	748	0

 29667, conf, CLR, Thronson Federal 9-21H, Alkali Creek:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
10-2015	20247	31739
9-2015	15331	23517
8-2015	17963	27135
7-2015	903	275

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A Note To The Granddaughters

Back on August, 4, 2015, I wrote "a note to the granddaughters" with regard to a WSJ review of a recent retrospective of Gustave Caillebotte.

I bought the museum catalogue book on Caillebotte at that time, left it in shrink wrap until I was able to visit the exhibit in the Kimbell Museum here in Ft Worth, Texas.

I was finally able to visit it yesterday. Maybe I've had too much of Monet, but Caillebotte was absolutely fascinating. I enjoyed the exhibit more than any other exhibit in recent memory, and it's possible Caillebotte will replace Monet as my favorite painter. I can hardly wait to bring my wife to the exhibit when she gets back to Texas early in January. Fortunately the exhibit goes on until mid-February.

Yesterday, by myself, I got to "do" the Kimbell museum exactly how I enjoy "doing" museums. Because it was Christmas Eve, traffic was light, I parked right in front of the museum, and the exhibit was fairly "empty" of viewers.

I went directly to the Piano Pavilion where the exhibit was being held. There was another temporary exhibit -- which was free -- so I quickly walked through that one to get an overview. Then to the main attraction, Gustave Caillebotte, pronounce "Ki-a-bott," heavy accent on the third syllable; accent on the first, or maybe just the opposite.

I did a quick walk-through in about four minutes to get an overview. Then I departed, to get a book out of the car, and then back to the Pavilion to have an incredibly good lunch, during which I read a bit of The Peabody Sisters.

I then went back to the exhibit, picking up one of those "museum walkie-talkies" which describe the art work.  I sat down on a chair and proceeded to listen to the entire presentation, but not looking at the paintings, just listening to the presentation. I had already had a glimpse of the paintings and the oral description brought the painting back to mind. The whole presentation, I think, took about 15 minutes.

Then I returned the walkie-talkie and went back and visited each painting at length, putting together in my own mind what Caillebotte was all about.

This is Caillebotte from my perspective, fact mixed with conjecture:

• independently rich; he did not paint for a living; he painted because he enjoyed it
• he did not sell his paintings; he exhibited a few
• he was a patron of the Impressionists; he collected their works; he encouraged them to exhibit
• when he died, his large collection of Impressionists was acquired by the state (France)
• Caillebotte was known as the individual who "made" the Impressionists; he himself, in his lifetime, was not known as a painter
• his works were scattered among dozens (hundred?) of private individuals; few ended up in museums
• he had a number of other vocations
• he loved to row on the French rivers; that may have been his first love, along with stamp collecting
• his fourth hobby was gardening, and he and Monet exchanged many tips on gardening
• Caillebotte bought a piece of land for gardening for a short period of time directly across from Monet's famous Giverney Japanese garden
• the exhibit did not mention whether Caillebotte was married or had a family; I think not
• he died at an early age, 49 years old, I believe
• he was quite distraught after his father's death, and then his younger brother, at age 28, died just two years later
• he was very, very close to his two brothers
• his paintings are not Impressionistic, but neither are they modern nor photographic
• they are, however, "Polaroids"; the subject is no more important than the surrounding accoutrements, except that the subject was generally in the center of the painting -- just as a Polaroid does not favor the individual any more than the surrounding background
• his subjects were mundane, common activities, mostly Paris street scenes, almost always with a few people on the street; the subjects he painted were the same subjects that Virginia Woolf wrote about in Mrs Dalloway
• he captured Paris as it transitioned to "Hausmann"
• his inside sittings were generally of men, unlike what most other painters at the time were doing, paintings of women
• his painting of "Scrapers" -- men scraping a wooden floor to refurbish it -- reminded me of something Kenneth Anger might like