For Newbies: A Rattlesnake Point Well -- February 21, 2019

This page will not be updated.

This page is for newbies.

We've discussed wells in Rattlesnake Point ad nauseum on the blog. I'm simply updating wells that caught my interest over the past six months or so.

The real purpose of this post: to remind newbies that it is absolutely impossible to predict how the Bakken or any given well in the Bakken will turn out.

When I first started blogging, I was told that I was cherry picking (I plead guilty as charged) and that many wells were uneconomical. And by implication, the Bakken would fail.

I argued that even these uneconomical wells played a role. Three important roles:
held the lease by production, no matter how low the production, as long as it kept producing
provided geologists with lots of information about the geology
provided operators an opportunity to improve their drilling/completion strategies
I never, never thought, at the time, about the halo effect, work-overs, mini-re-fracks, or major re-fracks.

But look at this well. In addition to the reasons already mentioned, look how this well "turned around."

The well:

• 17089, 400, CLR, Bridger 44-14H, t4/08; cum 358K 12/18; and then back on confidential; re-fracked 4/17;

Full production profile at this post.

It's IP was pretty poor, even for the time:

• 24-hour: 400 bbls
• 30-day: 8,000 bbls
• 90-day: 18,000 bbls

But it plateaued fairly quickly and, though low, was a steady Eddy when it came to production.

By seven years or so, it looked like a pretty miserable well. I did not check but very likely put on "stripper well" status.

Then, all of a sudden it shows a bit of life. In late 2015 the well shows a small jump in production, and it stayed there for about one year.

But then it was taken off-line for a year so.

And then it was re-fracked in early 2017:

• 40 stages; 14.3 million lbs
• "new IP": 1,344
• it was a re-entry well
• the re-entry was drilled in the existing horizontal lateral at the 20,845-foot point. 
• TD was reached at 21,158' (the horizontal was extended by 313 feet)
• "Lateral 1 was in the very upper part of the middle Bakken and in the Lower Bakken formation."

After the re-frack, this well turned out to be a very, very good well. I assume it will have work-overs, mini-re-fracks, and perhaps major refracks over the next 30 years. This well was first drilled in 2008 but really wasn't much of a good well until the re-frack, 2017. Technically, this well is ten years old, but from the "real" frack, it is only two years old. All infrastructure costs were sunk (road, pad, pipelines, etc) a long time ago. For the cost of extending the horizontal 300 feet and a big re-frack, CLR essentially got a brand-new well. In addition, the geologists and drillers learned more about the Bakken.  

Selected production profile:

BAKKEN	11-2017	30	16622	16901	19907	19639	19639	0
BAKKEN	10-2017	31	22673	21904	16941	24616	22715	1901
BAKKEN	9-2017	27	18302	18465	15589	19122	16196	2926
BAKKEN	8-2017	31	27510	27488	27427	28501	21738	6763
BAKKEN	7-2017	5	2102	2047	837	1178	85	1093
BAKKEN	6-2017	1	519	230	1306	317	0	317
BAKKEN	5-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	4-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	3-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	2-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	1-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	12-2016	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	11-2016	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	10-2016	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	9-2016	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	8-2016	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	7-2016	6	335	644	87	433	66	367
BAKKEN	6-2016	30	2106	2220	602	2532	159	2373

By the way, #31847, Bridger 9-14H1, exactly parallels this well, separated vertically, but hardly horizontally. #31847 is a Three Forks first bench well.