Why I Love The Bakken -- "The Bakken Magic" -- October 5, 2019

I don't know when I last checked this well and I don't know when I wrote this comment about this well but it was probably in 2017:

• 17100 -- CLR, IA; still active; off-line; a lousy well so far;

So, I was curious. How is this well doing now?

Two years ago -- production from 12/16 to 6/17 -- fourth column over is barrels of oil produced in that given month - in this example, this well produced a measly 171 bbls over 22 days in 6/17, or a measly 8 bbls/day:

BAKKEN	6-2017	22	171	240	33	88	88	0
BAKKEN	5-2017	31	296	239	37	122	116	6
BAKKEN	4-2017	30	267	231	57	137	122	15
BAKKEN	3-2017	31	299	229	48	181	168	13
BAKKEN	2-2017	28	282	460	53	183	172	11
BAKKEN	1-2017	31	327	224	30	215	196	19
BAKKEN	12-2016	29	301	445	72	256	209	47

Pretty grim, huh?

Well, it became even more grim:

BAKKEN	4-2018	5	694	694	5436	1379	0	1379
BAKKEN	3-2018	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	2-2018	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	1-2018	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	12-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	11-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	10-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	9-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	8-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	7-2017	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

But then, "the Bakken magic" (in May, 2018, 26,682 bbls over 17 days extrapolates to 47,000 bbls over 30 days):

BAKKEN	4-2019	30	11382	11707	13664	24772	24325	63
BAKKEN	3-2019	31	13634	13627	14923	31262	30859	0
BAKKEN	2-2019	28	15169	15195	14896	31608	31244	0
BAKKEN	1-2019	31	19014	18470	17359	25326	24534	404
BAKKEN	12-2018	31	21408	22114	19145	30985	29649	939
BAKKEN	11-2018	26	19947	19791	18477	29165	28029	799
BAKKEN	10-2018	23	16490	16215	15655	21907	19175	2445
BAKKEN	9-2018	30	25164	25212	26236	31413	27881	3140
BAKKEN	8-2018	31	35997	35753	45374	42924	42309	210
BAKKEN	7-2018	31	41189	41427	57492	45918	43344	2169
BAKKEN	6-2018	30	52661	52713	63442	57604	52886	4326
BAKKEN	5-2018	17	26682	26410	36450	28245	21100	7145

This was the best this well did when it was originally completed:

BAKKEN	10-2008	30	4006	3566	1019	3645	3046	599
BAKKEN	9-2008	25	2005	2291	187	1726	1545	181
BAKKEN	8-2008	31	3844	3643	527	3484	3319	165
BAKKEN	7-2008	31	3969	4095	1043	3020	295	2725
BAKKEN	6-2008	30	5914	5648	2002	3903	0	3903
BAKKEN	5-2008	31	160	0	2305	0	0	0

Pretty lousy. And it remained a lousy well for ten years. But apparently CLR just had too many other things to do and never got around to doing something about this lousy well ... until now.

And there you have it.

In May, 2008, drilled and a lousy well.

In May, 2018, ten years later, to the month, a huge well, and a "50K+ well in June, 2018. I wonder if Hubbert had any 10-year-old wells that jumped from 400 bbls/month to 50,000 bbls/month (let's see, 50,000 / 400 = 125x jump in production).

People talk all about the "dreaded decline rate" in the Bakken. I have yet to hear much about these second time 'round wells, which are about as inexpensive as one can imagine. At worse, they have a break even cost of about $6/bbl; at best ... well, what do you get when you divide a number into zero?

The well:

• 17100, 240, CLR, Mountain Gap 31-10H, Rattlesnake Point, t6/08; cum 429K 8/19.

If you've read this far, the Mountain Gap wells in Rattlesnake Point are tracked here. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time I've highlighted this particular well. But look at that IP -- 240 -- who would have ever thought this would be a 50K+ well?

For more on "the Bakken magic," see this post.

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A Kind Of Magic

Magic, Queen