The Million Dollar Way (The Bakken Oil Blog): Slawson's Torpedo Federal Wells -- March 24, 2017

The Wells

Twelve producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

31278, 4,862, Slawson, Torpedo Federal 10H, t12/18; cum 178K after 41 days; cum 574K 2/20; off line 2/20; see this post;
31277, 825, Slawson, Torpedo Federal 9H, t12/18; cum 238K 4/20; off line 3/20;
31276, 2,942, Slawson, Torpedo Federal 8H, t12/18; cum 323K 4/20; off line 3/20;
31275, 3,632, Slawson, Torpedo Federal 7H, t12/18; cum 304K 3/20; off line 3/20;
31274, 3,205, Slawson, Torpedo Federal 6H, t12/18; cum 24K after 19 days; cum 271K 3/20; off line 3/20;
31273, 2,254, Slawson, Torpedo Federal 5H, t12/18; cum 34K after 39 days; cum 218K 3/20; off line 4/20;
31272, 1,090, Slawson, Torpedo Federal 4H, t12/18; cum 35K after 37 days; cum 233K 4/20; off line 4/20;
31271, 1,109, Slawson, Torpedo Federal 3H, 33-061-03689, Big Bend, 10.8 million gallons of waer; 89% water, t12/18; cum 13K after 16 days; cum 208K 3/20; off line 3/20;
31270, 1,523, Slawson, Torpedo Federal 2H, 33-061-03688, Big Bend, no production data, fracked 9/7/2018 - 9/15/2018; 6.9 million gallons of water; 89% water; t12/18; cum 19K after 29days; cum 173K 3/20; off line 3/20;
31269, 1,857, Slawson, Torpedo Federal 1H, 33-061-03687, Big Bend, no production data, fracked 9/5/2018 - 9/12/2018; 5.9 million gallons; 89% water; t12/18; cum 18K after 27 days; cum 187K 3/20; off line 4/20;
31289, 1,794, Slawson, Bandit Federal 1 SLH, t12/18; cum 29K after 34 days; cum 271K 4/20; off line 4/20;
31279, 3,794, Slawson, Rebel Federal 1SLH, t12/18; cum 49K after 45 days; cum 426K 3/20; off line 3/20;
18924, 1,361, runs south, parallels #31289 which runs north; was off-line for a month, 9/18; back on line 10/18; t2/11; cum 551K 4/20; off line 4/20; subtle, perhaps, increase in production when it came back on line;

Updates

June 10, 2020: most of the Torpedo Federal wells are off line, probably due to low oil prices. Updated graphic:

October 28, 2018: update. It appears that all eleven wells have now been drilled to depth; ten of the eleven wells are on SI/NC status; the eleventh is on drl status. Note: there are twelve wells on this pad, but #31289 runs north; whereas the other eleven run south under the river/lake.

November 15, 2017; I can't imagine anyone being interested, but this is the link to the environmental impact study Slawson provided during the permitting process. It will open as a PDF, probably on your desktop.

April 1, 2017: The Bismarck Tribune has a story on this multi-well pad.

March 25, 2017: this is pretty amazing if "we're" talking about the same wells. But that would not make sense. Yesterday I just happened to come across these Slawson permits/wells. I was just scanning the map and somehow happened upon these wells. Nothing more to the story. Then a few minutes ago, I was reading the Williston Wire. I had received it some days ago but didn't get to it until now. And there it was: an article on the BLM approving a permit for Slawson to drill the first eight of 11 wells from a single pad. But then again, the wells below have already been issued a permit from NDIC so I assume "we're" talking about different eleven (11) wells. From the linked article:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has completed its environmental analysis on a proposal to drill oil wells on private land within the Fort Berthold Reservation near Lake Sakakawea.

With completion of this environmental analysis, the BLM will approve a permit for the Slawson Exploration Company to drill the first eight of 11 wells from a single well pad.
The well pad will be located approximately 800 feet from the lake, with the production facilities located three quarters of a mile away.

Although the well pad and facilities will be located on private land, the BLM must issue an approved permit to drill the Federally-managed leases, which will be accessed through horizontal drilling.

But it sure sounds like the same set of wells: the production facilities will be located three-quarters of a mile away, same as the site below in the "original post."

If these are the same wells, and it appears they are, this appears to be the process: the NDIC issues a permit, but if the BLM has jurisdiction, the BLM also has to approve the NDIC permit.

Original Post

From a sundry form received September 23, 2016:

Slawson requests that the referenced wells be removed from confidential status. Slawson will instead request confidential status upon completion as allowed per rule 43.02.03.31. Slawson estimates the drilling of these wells will commence in October, 2016, and last approximately 12 months. Our current plan is to drill the 10 Torpedo wells back-to-back before completion operations. Completion and clean out will last approximately 14 weeks.

Some other notes from other correspondence:

the wells are currently planned to be drilled with a rig equipped with a closed-loop mud system and electric motors, which eliminates reserve pits, and greatly reduces noise and emissions
sound walls (32-feet in height) will be constructed and used during all drilling and completion activities
completion operations will use a lay-flat pipeline system to deliver fresh water to the well site that will eliminate 600 trucks per day
the production pad will be located offsite, approx one mile northeast
pad location was moved north from originally proposed site to allow a greater distance from the lake ... the new location increased the overall length of each wellbore, added to the cost of each well by $250,000 for the 2-mile laterals and $400,000 for the three-mile laterals due to additional cement, tubulars, and drill days (approximately $4 million added project cost)

Proposed APD conditions allowing operation "only during the winter months will have" considerable operating and cost effects. It would also extend the complete drilling program to take 3 - 4 years instead of the 14-month timeframe described in the BLM Torpedo Federal Environmental Assessment.

Note: a water truck typically carries 11,600 gallons of water. A completion requiring 7,000,000 gallons of water translates to 7,000,000/ 11,600 = 600 trucks. [Update: see first comment -- in ND, there is a weight limit which translates to 8,000 gallons max for water. 8,000,000 gallons / 8,000 gallons = 1,000 trucks for a rather average frack.]

X marks the spot(s). Five sections in this drilling unit. 5 x 640 = 3200 acres, all under the lake: