An Example Of The Manufacturing Stage InThe Bakken -- September 11, 2016

Note: clicking on the screenshots, will bring them up in a new "window" and will enlarge them immensely.

A reader provided an incredible narrative and a satellite view of the Killdeer area to make a very good point and help bring us up to date on what is going on in this part of the Bakken.

The first screen shot is the one the reader sent me. Because of the logo on the map, some areas are hard to see. It is undated, but the reader suggests that the date of the satellite photo was March, 2016.

In an attempt to get a "cleaner" view of this area, I went to google maps, but the current satellite view of this area is quite old. I have put in ovals where new activity is going on. The reader's narrative (below the third screenshot) should help explain what is going on, and why it is going on.

The marker is CLR's Oakdale 3-13H well.

• 26950, 726, CLR, Oakdale 3-13H, Jim Creek, 4 sections, 40 stages, 8 million lbs, date stimulated 1/5, t7/15; cum 147K 7/16. API: 33-025-20354; 47.457920, -102.848958.

I track the Jim Creek oil field here.
I track the Oakdale and Ryden wells here.

This is what the NDIC shows in this area as of today:

Now the reader's narrative. I have edited it. If there are mistakes, they can be attributed to me, not the reader.

The reader makes the same argument that I make (and no doubt, Mike Filloon would confirm): that smart operators are stockpiling fracking sand in anticipation of Bakken 2.0. Most people now agree that the Bakken is in its manufacturing stage. Bakken 2.0 could happen as early as 2018 but not likely to be delayed longer than 2020.

From the reader:

I came across Terra-Server after doing a google search for satellite images of earth after waiting a long time for google earth to update the area around Killdeer.

The view of the stock pile of material on the north end of Jim Creek field is very interesting. There is a gravel pit just to the west of this stockpile but it would make no sense to use an offsite location to stock gravel processed from that pit.

Typically, when gravel is processed in the pit it goes directly to the conveyor and is stockpiled. Not loaded into trucks, hauled to another site, then loaded into a conveyor. Maybe the stock pile has something to do with the new truck bypass being built around Killdeer. If it is aggregate material for concrete or asphalt paving I don’t know why there would be more than two separate piles, one for gravel and for sand. Suggesting the stock pile is frac sand is a "long shot," but why not?

CLR had an early presence in this area at the start of the Bakken boom. It looks to me like they have methodically worked to set this area up for the manufacturing stage. They have several Central Tank Batteries set up on their local drilling units. Many of these CTBs are tied to their disposal well and their Bridger Pipeline system so waste water and oil will be piped and not trucked from producing wells. The new Bear Creek gas plant is nearing completion so they should have good access to market their gas and not flare it.

I think when oil prices recover production in the WB will recover quickly, at least for companies like CLR.

A huge "thank-you" to the reader for sending this note as well as the screenshot.