Saturday, August 18, 2018

Well Fire Reported In McKenzie County -- Sounds Like "All Is Well" -- August 18, 2018

Sounds like everyone involved did a great job responding to this emergency -- a well fire in McKenzie County, Tobacco Garden area. From myndnow:
Multiple anks caught fire in McKenzie County earlier the evening.
The McKenzie County Sheriff's office was notified of an oil well fire northwest of the Tobacco Gardens Resort.
They received several calls reporting black smoke, the ground shaking, and numerous explosions.
Keen Fire Department, McKenzie County Ambulance, and the Sheriff's office all responded to the scene.
The oil pad well had about 27 tank batteries, 16 crude oil tanks, and 10 water tanks on location.
Approximately 50 barrels of crude oil was in one tank at the time of the fire and was contained inside the dike of the well pad.
It was reported the well site was not producing oil at the time and was shut down earlier in the day due to work needing to be be done on location. 
Workers were on the location at the time the fire started, but no injuries were reported.
Wow -- that last line was the most important: no injuries were reported.

Contributor At Seeking Alpha Suggests Oasis Was The Seller In The Whiting "Bolt-On" Acquisition -- August 18, 2018

At the sidebar at the right, "Deals in the Bakken," about one-third of the way down, the most recent deal posted was the "Whiting bolt-on": 55,000 acres for $130 million.

Today, Don found an article completing the story. Apparently Oasis was the seller. Over at SeekingAlpha:
  • Whiting Petroleum acquired nearly 55,000 net acres in the Williston Basin for $130 million
  • this appears to be Oasis's Foreman Butte position, which it had categorized as lower-quality acreage
  • Whiting believes that it can achieve stronger results with its Generation 4.0 completions
  • the new acreage is on trend with Whiting's strong performing Mallow 34-8H well, although that well is located a fair bit to the east of the acquisition
  • Whiting is able to take a relatively low priced risk due to its improved financial position and cessation of Redtail development spending
I would not have guessed. I did not think Oasis owned that much acreage in this area.

Oasis, August, 2018, corporate presentation --
  • slide 4: net acres in the Williston Basin -- 503,000 net acres
  • see note below: at end of 2017: 520,000 net acres
  • so, something doesn't add up
  • selling 55,000 net acres should have put their total acreage well bellow 500,000
  • perhaps the deal has not closed yet and Oasis is not yet reporting it?
From "Bakken operators":
From Whiting's presentation, the "bolt-on":
Bolt-on appears to be mostly Tier 2 (by 2018 norms) but some Tier 1.

Now compare Oasis acreage in the Williston Basin:


The SeekingAlpha contributor references this Oasis deal earlier in the year:  $283 million / 65,000 acres = $4,500 / acre.