Bakken 2.0 -- March 4, 2017

Earlier today I posted a note on Bakken 2.0. A reader provided this line a few moments ago, from Investor's Business Daily: shale producers will soon reveal how lean and mean they really got.

Not much new was said that regular readers don't already know.

I'm always interested in frack sand data. From the article:

On the completion side, however, some of the innovations are adding to cost pressures. The biggest is the use of higher proppant loads to release more oil in the fracking process. Longer lateral wells also require more sand. Anderson said producers are now using an average of 4,600 tons of frac sand per well vs. 2,600 tons in 2014.

• 4,600 tons x 2,000 lbs/ton = 9.2 million lbs

I'm not seeing that; must be in the Permian. My hunch is that the average amount of sand being used in the Bakken is about 4 million lbs, maybe as high as 6 million lbs, but I could be way off. My number is simply based off anecdotal data, looking at a lot of completion data, but nothing comprehensive or statistical. 

From the article;

Gary Gould, Continental Resources' vice president of production, told analysts last month that the company is using 1,000-2,000 pounds of fracking sand per foot in the Bakken shale play vs. the 3,000 pounds per foot other operators are using. EOG even sees its sand costs falling by 18%, saying it has multiple sand vendors.

Also:

In the Bakken, Continental plans to increase the number of completion crews there to eight by mid-May from five now, but maintain the number of drilling rigs at four through the end of the year.