Monday, October 28, 2019

Oldest Well (?) In North Dakota Reports A Very, Very Nice IP -- Considering -- October 28, 2019

I could be wrong, but I think this is one of the oldest "test dates" I have ever seen for any well in North Dakota -- and it's a Bakken well! Whoo-hoo!

Tested back on April Fool's Day, 1931, it had a great IP: 2,171.

But after 88 years of production this well has produced less than 100,000 bbls of oil.

The well:
  • 35798, 2,171, Whiting, Link 31-14HU, Foreman Butte, t4/19 (although the scout ticket has the test date as 4/1/1931 -- which of course would be April Fool's Day, 1931 -- ; cum 72K 8/19;
Screen shot from the NDIC site:


For newbies: this is a  little bit of humor. Obviously this was a typographical error. According to a sundry form for this well, the test date for this well was reported to be 4/8/2019, with 35 stages, 6.0 million lbs of sand.

If I recall correctly, "legend" has it that oil was first discovered in North Dakota in 1951, although many wells were drilled before then. Permit #25 is for the famous Clarence Iverson No 1 "discovery well." Meanwhile, NDIC permit #1:

1, dry, Des Lacs Western Oil Co., Blum 1, wildcat/Cretaceous pool. From the company's report at the time:
"The first oil to be discovered in this State was encountered in a shallow well on the A. F. Blum farm, situated in Section 9, Township 155, Range 83, Ward County, North Dakota, in October, 1916. After making tests from this well at the depth of 234 feet the Des Lacs Western Oil Compnay was formed and charterd (at the capitalization of 275,000 shares) under the Laws of the State of North Dakota. "Stock is non-assessable".

A second well was then drilled and oil was again encountered at 243 feet. The encountering of the sand rock at a lower level and also the finding of oil in the second well let us to believe that we were located on an oil structure and before spending any more money for tests it was agreed to have our field checked by one or more competent Civil Engineers or Oil Geologists.
As opposed, to say, "incompetent civil engineers."

No production data is shown at the NDIC site for this well, but it appears that the well eventually went on to produce around 72,000 bbls of oil, though the scout ticket says the well was "dry."

The location described above is near Burlington, ND, a bit west of Minot, ND.

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