Watch For Increased Activity Targeting The Madison Formation -- August 12, 2017

Agenda from recent NDIC hearing dockets and e-mails from a reader suggest that interest might be picking up in the Madison. From an earlier post: The Madison Group was the primary oil-producing interval in the Williston Basin prior to the Bakken. I track the Madison here.

See stratigraphy here. The Madison is shallower than the Bakken; it overlies the Bakken; it is just above the Bakken in the Williston Basin. I would say that for the most part it is a "conventional" formation and has been targeted with conventional drilling strategies. If I'm wrong, I would welcome corrections.

Successful wells targeting the Madison in North Dakota, from my perspective, are long-lasting wells that have a very flat decline rate. I haven't looked at Madison wells in a long time, so I could be wrong. I will be looking at them again this week.

There are some very, very successful Madison wells including many "monster wells." Petro-Hunt (not to be confused with Petro Harvester, to be mentioned later) and Whiting have a fair number of these Madison wells:

• 6399, PA/1,360, Petro-Hunt, Lillian Glovatsky 1-19-1A, Madison, Little Knife, t5/78; cum 1.14 million bbls 5/16 (none in 2/16); off-line as of 8/16;
• 6165, 772, Petro-Hunt, Klatt 2-19-3D, Madison, Little Knife, 160-acre spacing, t7/77; cum 1.51794 million bbls 6/17;
• 6225, 1,392, Petro-Hunt/Gulf Oil, Zabolotny 2-3-3-C, Little Knife field, Madison Pool, t12/77; cum 3.0321 million bbls 6/17 and still producing 1,000 bbls/month; 6/17
• 6082, 470, Petro-Hunt, Martin Weber 1-18-1C, Madison, Little Knife, t5/77; cum 945K 6/17;
• 6118, 597/PNA, Petro-Hunt, Martin  Weber 2-18-4D, Madison, Little Knife; t5/77; cum 1.12 million bbls 3/13
• 6212, 926, Petro-Hunt, Tachenko 1-15-1B, Madison, Little Knife, t3/78; cum 880K 6/17;
• 6421, PA/731, Petro-Hunt, Rose Glovatsky 1-20-1A, Madison, Little Knife; t10/78; cum 1.3681 million bbls7/16;
• 7123, 450, Whiting, Big Stick (Madison) Unit 9550, t4/80; cum 1.8473 million bbs 6/17;
• 7274, 1,100/PA, Whiting, Big Stick (Madison) Unit 2502, t5/80; cum 2.05 million 11/94
• 7447, 932, Whiting, Big Stick (Madison) Unit 3002, t10/80 cum 1.088 million bbls 6/17; was inactive for a couple of months in 2013;
• 7485, 702, Whiting, Big Stick (Madison) Unit 1302, t5/81; cum 2.32887 million bbls 6/17;
• 9295, 1,324, Whiting, North Elkhorn Ranch Unit 2001 a Madison well, t9/82; cum 1.24888 million bbls 6/17; this well has produced for about 35 years;
• 9772, 1,128/PNA, Whiting, North Elkhorn Ranch Unit 2101 a Madison well, t10/82; cum 1.2 million bbls 10/13; this well is still active and producing 1,000 bo per month;
• 12487, 272, Petro-Hunt, Texaco Otto Boss 18-1, Stockyard Creek, Madison; s8/88; t9/88; cum 703K 6/17;

I started noticing more interest in the Madison in the NDIC hearing dockets over the past few months, mostly by Petro Harvester.

In the June and August (2017) hearing dockets:

August:

• Case 26021, Petro Harvester, Short Creek-Madison pool, four sections, 26/27/34/35-164-93, establish four standup 400-acre units; 2 horizontal wells in each; Burke County
• Case 26022, Petro Harvester, Woburn-Madison pool, establish two 1280-acre units, one hz well on each

June:

• 25844, Petro Harvester Operating, Portal-Madison, establish three 640-acre units; two horizontal wells each; Burke County

BUT NOTE: A reader corroborates my "feeling" that interest in the Madison is picking up ... but not as conventional vertical wells, but as horizontal wells. 

Based on the reader's comments and the NDIC hearing dockets, one might want to watch for increased drilling in the Portal/Lignite area targeting the Madison later this fall, perhaps just before winter sets in, in October.

Apparently  Petro Harvester recently acquired two Hess Bakken wells west of their current field which greatly increased their acreage near Columbus. Preparing to start drilling horizontal wells in their leasehold areas would explain why older (and still producing Madison wells) are being abandoned.

Currently, there are no rigs in the area. I will be watching for a couple of rigs in this area if our hunch is correct.

The area under discussion:

The area under discussion would be north of the region marked "10" in the map at this post.

It's hard to tell, but it appears from the "heat map of the Bakken" that this is also a good area for the Bakken.