From A Year Ago -- Top 10 CLR-Operated Wells In The Bakken -- August 30, 2019

Updates

Later, 4:01 p.m. CT: looking at the top 10 CLR-operated wells listed below -- the following updates:

• 31520, SI/NC, CLR, Steele Federal 5-24H1, no production data; SI/NC noted SI/NC;
• 31521, SI/NC, CLR, Steele Federal 6-24H, no production data; SI/NC noted SI/NC;
• 31522, SI/NC, CLR, Steele Federal 8-24H1, no production data; SI/NC noted SI/NC;
• 31523, SI/NC, CLR, Steele Federal 9-24H, no production data; SI/NC noted SI/NC;

Original Note

Note: the definition of "top-10 well" may differ from operator to operator, from analyst to analyst. Is it:

• the 24-hr IP?
• the first full day-day production number?
• the first full 90 days of production?
• the first full 120 days of production?
• the EUR type curve?

From August 11, 2018, CLR's 2Q18 corporate presentation:

Top 10 CLR-operated wells Bakken wells (those in bold red make the top 10 list for the entire Bakken -- all operators):

• Mountain Gap 7-10H (#1 of all Bakken wells) (see this post; one post among many)
• Monroe 6-2H (tracked here)
• Mountain Gap 8-10H1 (#2 of all Bakken wells)
• Lansing 6-25H (tracked here)
• Uhlman Federal 3-7H (#3 of all Bakken wells) (tracked here, along with the Pittsburg wells)
• Pittsburgh 3-7H (#4 of all Bakken wells) (tracked here, along with the Uhlman Federal wells)
• Vardon 2-14H (tracked here) [a lot of wells in this area recently fracked (6/19)]
• Tarentaise Federal 1-19H
• Vardon 4-14H
• Tarentaise Federal 3-19H (tracked here); old Buelingo well with huge jump in production;

Things are changing so fast in the Bakken and the production is increasing so fast on newer wells it's becoming harder and harder to compare apples to oranges (new wells to old wells).

With "rich gas" EOR the challenge will become even more difficult.

The good news:

• "every" well completed before 2012 needs to be either re-drilled and re-completed, or simply re-completed (lots of work yet to be done in the Bakken)  
• between 2014 and 2018, operators were focused on better completion strategies
• it's possible, we're in a "plateau" stage right now: waiting for all operators to get to same level 
• the next production/well breakout may be in 2020 or 2022
• the middle Bakken is pretty much fully mapped
• the Three Forks first bench is getting there
• there is very, very little public information regarding the second bench
• "no" information regarding the third bench; and, 
• now the Red River formation might be getting more attention

Some operators and some fields have been incredible from "day 1." The question is: could those wells -- the very best wells in the Bakken -- could they have been even better with current completion strategies?