An "Old" SM Well Finally Completed/Reported By Petro-Hunt -- April 27, 2019

The well:

• 31367, SI/NC--> TATD-- 201, Petro-Hunt/SM Energy, Owl 1-28HS, Ambrose, t2/19; cum --; 

Wow, this certainly took a long time. This well came off the confidential list March 25, 2016, and went to DUC status; from the file report:

• a Three Forks well;
  tested 2/15/18; 35 stages; 3.5 million lbs sand
• February 1, 2017: SM requested that the well be temporarily abandoned until improved economics and recovery of oil prices
• spud: 9/24/15
• located just north of Williston in Divide County
• target zone defined as a 6' thick interval 6' below the base of the lower Bakken shale
• TD reached on 12/14/15
• lateral was drilled approximately 77% within the payzone

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	2-2019	20	2159	2373	7257	1783	1634	13
BAKKEN	1-2019	16	2435	2122	3556	828	578	156
BAKKEN	11-2018	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Two sister wells:

• 31407: not completed yet; still TA 
• 31366: story and production almost identical to #21367 above 

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US Air Force Buzz Numbers

History and identification codes. 

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Last Featured On The Blog May 20, 2018

Link here.

Diana, Paul Anka

And, of course, for something a little different, full album with ten covers:

Project 1950, The Misfits

Slawson's Proposed Large Overlapping Units In The Parshall Oil Field, Up To 20 Wells Each -- April 27, 2019

From the May 23, 2019, hearing dockets, link here:

• 27556, Slawson, Parshall-Bakken; i) establish three overlapping 1920-acre units, E/2-20/21/22/W/2-23/W/2-26/27/28/E/2-29;33/34/35-151-91; twenty wells on each of those three 1920-acre units (60 wells in all); ii) establish two overlapping 3840-acre units, E/2-20 and 29/ 21/22/27/28, and W/2-23 and 26; 26/27/28/33/34/35-151-91, two wells; iii) decrease the number of wells from 22 to two wells on an existing 1280-acre unit, 34/35-151-91; iv) decrease the number of wells on each of two 1600-ace units, 21/22/W/2-23; and W/2-26, 27/28-151-92, from 22 wells to two wells; Mountrail County

Note: this is case #27556, not a permit.

Disclaimer: this is my interpretation of the details provided. It may be completely wrong or I may have misread something. If this is important to you, go to the source.

I'm pretty sure I have this correct but it's always notable when two operators (in this case, Slawson and EOG) are putting in wells so closely together. I assume this is an issue adjudicated by the NDIC based on majority of acres held.

The graphic of the three 1920-acre units. The three 1920-acre units are labeled A, B, and C.

The other wells in the three drilling units (note: these are spaced different but sited in these units, and the horizontals also run in these new 1920-acre units:

Drilling unit A (outline in red):

• 18979, PNC, EOG, Liberty LR XX-23H, Parshall, 10/11/10;
• 30593, loc, EOG, Liberty LR 29-2321H, Parshall, 1/28/15;
• 30594, loc, EOG, Liberty LR 108-2321H, Parshall, 1/28/15;
• 19721, 1,063, EOG, Liberty LR 19-23H, Parshall, t3/11; cum 372K 2/19; spacing ICO;

Drilling unit B (outline in purple):

• 20255, 892, EOG, Liberty LR 15-26H, Parshall, t4/12; cum 356K 2/19; spacing ICO;
• 20254, 980, EOG, Liberty LR 20-26H, Parshall, t12/11; cum 334K 2/19; spacing ICO;

Drilling unit C (outline in red):

• 18828, 1,066, EOG, Liberty LR 16-36H, Parshall, t2/11; cum 407K 2/19; spacing - 1280 acres;
• 19919, 1,648, EOG, Liberty LR 21-36H, Van Hook, t7/11; cum 504K 2/19; spacing - 1280 acres;

Global Warming Hits The Bakken -- April 27, 2019

I'm sure it happened but in the eighteen years of growing up in Williston, I do not recall a winter storm / blizzard at the end of April.

From KFYR, Bismarck:

Southern Surge

Locator: 10001SS.

During the Obama administration, I tracked the number of cities and states facing bankruptcy ["the doomsday chronicles"]. Since 2015 or thereabouts, we haven't seen many such stories. The new story seems to be the "southern surge."

Regardless of how one feels about the "southern surge," it's a fascinating story. This is where I will track the "southern surge." This page will be linked at the sidebar at the right.  Victor Davis Hanson has opined on the "sourthern surge" and I agree with his observations: things that go on forever, simply don't.

Updates

May 11, 2023: Title 42 ends. Covid-19 restrictions no longer in place to hold back the "southern surge." Mixed reports how things are going at the border.

May 12, 2022:

• Texas governor Abbott sending "illegals" by the busload to Washington (DC)
• Baby formula crisis;

October 13, 2021:

• middle class migrants fly to Mexico and then cross border illegally, WSJ;
• the new surge? Brazilians;

September 1, 2019: except for an occasional news item at/on a far-right media outlet about "families" continuing to stream across the southern border, the "southern surge" story has completely disappeared.

June 8, 2019: Trump says Mexico has announced immediately executable plans to help control illegal immigration into the US. Trump lifts threat of tariffs but says he will be watching Mexico's compliance closely.

May 30, 2019: in round numbers, 100,000 illegal immigrants streaming across the southern border every month; Congress and federal judges unwilling to stop to southern surge; Trump today announces, without warning, a 5% tariff on Mexican goods coming into US; that tariff will gradually be increased until Mexico stops the surge.

April 28, 2019: as few as 70 immigrants/day can overwhelm cities with populations over one million. Practically every major city from San Antonio to Phoenix is mentioned in this Time article.

April 27, 2019: migrants from El Paso, TX, now being bussed directly to Tucson, AZ.  Official population of El Paso: 683,000, probably closer to 750,000. Tucson official: 535,000; probably closer to 650,000. Phoenix, 1.6 million.

April 16, 2019: Yuma, Arizona, mayor declares emergency over migrang surge.

April 4, 2019: El Paso buckles under the migrant surge. 

May 11, 2019: Pelosi's Choice.

Background, Update, And Comments From A Reader On The Hess Ethane Pipeline -- The Vantage Pipeline -- To Alberta -- April 27, 2019

A reader was nice enough to remind me of some data points regarding the Hess Vantage pipeline.

I replied that I was lazy this week/this weekend -- just too much to blog and I did not take the time for a proper update. Sorry. This all started with updates on Hess yesterday, these two links:

• Hess, 1Q19 earnings;
• Hess reclaims bragging rights to largest NG processing plant in North Dakota

and then readers' comments regarding the "Hess pipeline to Alberta."

The "Hess pipeline to Alberta" is the Vantage Pipeline.

So, let's do a blog search and provide some background:

• the Vantage Pipeline, from an October 13, 2014, posting:

With regard to ethane and ethane pipelines, a reader recently commented:

The Vantage pipeline to Alberta from the Hess plant is probably the longest ethane pipeline in North America. OneOK y-grade pipe line takes Bakken NGLs to Conway, Kansas, where the propane is fractionated and sent to north to Iowa and points north. The rest of the NGLs are sent to Mt Belvieu, TX, where the rest of the fractionations occur. 

The Vantage pipeline:

The Vantage Pipeline is a high vapour pressure (HVP) pipeline carrying ethane from a source near Tioga, North Dakota, extending northwest, through Saskatchewan, Canada, and terminating near Empress, Alberta, Canada. The pipeline links a growing supply of ethane from North Dakota to markets in Alberta. 

The Vantage Pipeline is 445 miles steel pipeline, with an outside diameter of 10 inches.

• the Vantage Pipeline, from a September 2, 2014, posting:

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

Pembina Pipeline Corporation is pleased to announce that it has entered into agreements to acquire the Vantage pipeline system and Mistral Midstream Inc.'s interest in the Saskatchewan Ethane Extraction Plant for total consideration of US$650 million.
 
Vantage is a recently constructed, approximately 700 kilometre ("km"), 40,000 barrel per day ("bpd"), high vapour pressure pipeline that originates in Tioga, North Dakota and terminates near Empress, Alberta. Vantage provides long-term, fee-for-service cash flow and strategic access to the prolific and growing North Dakota Bakken play for future natural gas liquids (NGL) opportunities. 

The Vantage pipeline can be increased to 60,000 bpd with minimum costs. 

• From July 16, 2013: Canada's biggest plastic producer will purchase all the ethane that Hess produces at its Tioga plant; US State Department approved the international pipeline to complete the deal. 

Now, new today: to say the least, the Vantage Pipeline really excited me when it was announced and then completed. But I was remiss re-posting all that for newbies. Again, a big apology. The notes above might be a bit disjointed, but one can probably sort it out.

Now, putting all that together from the reader today:

Hess moves ethane on this pipeline from Tioga to Empress, Alberta, where the Alberta Ethane Gathering System takes it to Nova Chemical's petrochemical complex at Joffre, Alberta. 

Hess is just completing the fifth year, I believe it is, of a ten-year deal supplying ethane to Nova. 

So I doubt they want to move ethane off this pipeline in the immediate future. 

And then this, which I had completely forgotten:

You may recall you previously mentioned one Bakken "tidbit", that Nova Chemicals is a subsidiary of IPIC (International Petroleum investment Company) which is wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Another Bakken amazement - supplying the UAE ethane! 

And for the post on that, see this September 19, 2018, entry. 

Has Anyone Connected The Health Dots? -- April 27, 2019

In 2000, measles was "eradicated" from the US. Screenshots to follow.

Ten years later, ObamaCare was signed into law on March 23, 2010.

Less than a decade later, this headline: this is the worst year for measles in the US since the disease was eliminated nationally in 2000. But that's CNBC so it may be fake news. Let's fact check:

• Buzzfeed: measles outbreaks in the US are now the worst on record since the disease was eradicated (that word again: eradicated)
• CDC, Atlanta, Georgia: US measles cases at highest level since elimination nearly 20 years ago, according to CDC (for ESL readers: "eradication" and "elimination" are very similar in meaning)

Again, thank you Mr Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. The data suggests this has little to do with the "southern surge."

Timeline:

• measles eradication in the US
• that Lancet article (Lancet is the most prestigious medical journal in the world)
• Orrin Hatch
• ObamaCare
• social media
• measles epidemic in the US

Occasional-Cortex is looking better and better every day.

Cost of measles vaccine:

• MMRII: $75
• but for the really good stuff, ProQuad: $214.37 (the vaccine includes the "chickenpox vaccine)
• free to inmates and illegal immigrants 

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US Expands "Catch And Release" Program

Time; Us expands program as border towns struggle with influx of migrants.

April 3, 2019.

Practically every major city from San Antonio to Phoenix is mentioned in this article. Cities with populations of 500,000 to over a million have run out of space with as few as 70 immigrants arriving on a daily basis.

The feds are now releasing as many as 1200 immigrants daily.

Einstein's definition of insanity.

Global Warming! What Global Warming? Winter Storm Xyler Will Spread Snow Across The Northern Tier Three Days Before May -- April 27, 2019

Link here to weather.com. So it must be true.

It may be late April, but Winter Storm Xyler will make you forget that it is spring in the Midwest this weekend as it is expected to bring some unusually heavy late season snowfall.

Snow, yes, that white stuff that we'd all rather forget about this time of the year, is on the way from the Dakotas to upstate New York. In some areas this could be one of the heaviest snowfalls so late in the season.

Cooler temperatures are also on the way from the northern Rockies into the northern Plains and Great Lakes as a pattern change will usher in another round of below-average temperatures.

Snow is falling in parts of South Dakota, Minnesota and northern Iowa as of Saturday morning. Rain and snow will continue sliding eastward into Saturday afternoon.

Yes, I know it's weather, but at some point, one thousand years of weather starts to become climate. 

Here in north Texas a beautiful Saturday, but then starting tomorrow, winter returns for a full week. I kid you not. Winter all next week here in north Texas. Not cold enough for snow, but it will feel like it.

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Didn't Get The Memo

It's now agreed, he's probably the dullest knife in the 20-knife drawer. Further validation if more is needed: he didn't get the memo that he would be speaking on a Friday night at a "commuter" college.

I don't know if folks remember, but no one in college shows up for a "talk" on Friday night, certainly not at a "commuter" college. For ESL readers, a "commuter college" is a college in which students do not live on campus but commute back and forth to school, to and from home or work. By Friday, 2:00 p.m., the commuter college campus is dead. As in "empty," not literally strewn with lifeless bodies.

But there he goes, where no politician has gone before. Beto, the Irishman, shows up at a commuter college on a Friday night to give a "speech."

Turnout? According to The Daily Caller, a couple dozen, which is a(n) euphemism for somewhere between eighteen and twenty-three but not twenty-four or more. Twenty-four or more would be "two dozen" or for Hillary, a "standing room only" crowd.

A "couple" allows one wiggle room on the downside.

The breakdown of the "couple dozen":

• Beto
• six in Beto's personal entourage, though he says he travels alone
• four campus security officers, all unarmed
• three political science professors
• four political science professors' interns
• two journalists (one from The Daily Caller; one photo-journalist)
• three students

Wow, It Never Quits -- The Financially Illiterate, And Debt As Capital

This should have been added to my "BS" post on GDP and debt but it was too good to be lost in that post.

To re-fresh your memory, according to economists:

Debts owed to others are referred to as liabilities while a debt owed to ourselves is referred to as capital.

After thinking about that overnight, Occasional-Cortex is starting to look more brilliant than Krugman, et al. LOL.

And Gabelli calls her "financialy illiterate." I'm no longer so sure she stands alone. LOL.

I need to figure out how to increase my own capital by increasing the debt I owe myself. Two ways I suppose:

• take loans out on my insurance policies; and/or,
• take out loans on my Thrift Savings Program (TSP).

Insurance companies and the TSP allow one to take out loans against the capital, but the loans must be paid back at some interest rate (back to myself). Of course, the loans decrease the payout if I die before the debt is paid. Dave Berry, if so inclined, would have a field day with this.

This is so interesting. Taking loans against myself increases my capital but will not increase my net worth. 

Enough of this.

Need to move on to global warming. Snowing in Detroit today, did I hear that yesterday? Don writes from southern Minnesota (that would be the warm part of Minnesota):
We are getting a cold rain here today at 36 degrees and projected to get 4 inches of snow. It is so hot due to AGW that my furnace kicked on again this morning, and I do not mean the air conditioning.

LOL. Three full days to May and we're still getting snow in the lower 48. Yeah, that global warming is letting us down. Mother Nature truly has a sense of humor.

Reason #1 Why I Love To Blog -- Feedback From My Readers -- April 27, 2019

Don had a "one word" reply to my recent post on GDP and debt: "bs." [For those who know English as a second language, see this post.]

You can see my reply at this post.

One of the things I wrote: But we learn things along the way. It seems that Krugman and Buffett are distinguishing between debt that is "owed to others" and debt that is "owed to ourselves." That may be something to explore later on.

I estimate that I know less than 1% of all that is going on with crude oil in the Bakken. With regard to natural gas, I know even less. And with regard to macro- and micro-economics, I know even less than what I know about natural gas. LOL.

If I recall correctly, I struggled with Economics 101 in college, and it should have been an incredibly easy course compared to some of the other courses I took. But I struggled with the concepts. I remember elastic demand and all the various curves and graphs. It seemed experts in economics made things more difficult to understand than necessary, but then again what did I know?

Back to distinguishing between debt that is "owed to others" and debt that is "owed to ourselves."

I was going to wait, look at that later, but curiosity got the better of me.

The internet is amazing. Who would have thought google would have returned 6,900 hits to a this search:

"debt owed to others" vs "debt owed to ourselves"

This is the screenshot:

From coursehero (subscription; which I don't have): Debts owed to others are referred to as liabilities while a debt owed to ourselves is referred to as capital. An asset therefore can legally be acquired in three ...

Why did the phrase "Ponzi scheme" just flash in front of my eyes?

So, now I begin to understand how Buffett and Krugman look at different kinds of debt. 

This reminds me of double-entry bookkeeping, something I never understood until recently (again, because of the blog and reader feedback):

Double-entry bookkeeping, in accounting, is a system of bookkeeping so named because every entry to an account requires a corresponding and opposite entry to a different account. The double entry has two equal and corresponding sides known as debit and credit.

I will come back to this. Time to move on. But it does look interesting to see how Krugman and Buffett must think.

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The Word Page

ESL: English as a second language.

Up above I had a link for ESL-readers regarding "bs."

That reminded me of another challenge for all of us, not just ESL-folks.

When are insects with "fly" in their names spelled as one word, and when are they spelled at two words.

It's very, very simple.

The insect is spelled as one word if it is not a true fly.

The insect is spelled as two words if it is a true fly.

Example: the fly that that bites horses (and if it bites you, ouch) is a true fly and is spelled: horse fly.

Example: the gossamer-winged insect ubiquitous in swamps is not a true fly and is spelled as one word: dragonfly.

There may be exceptions buy my authority on this suggests there are no exceptions. We'll see, I'm sure.

By the way, for ESL readers, the insects spelled as one word are neither of the two words in its name: the dragonfly is neither a fly nor a dragon.

A butterfly is neither a true fly nor a dairy product.

Hess 1Q19 Earnings

Later: see also this post on the Vantage Pipeline.

Original Post

Hess day?

I just posted a long note on Hess' plans to expand it Tioga facility. I previously mentioned in passing 1Q19 earnings for Hess, but now it seems a good time to look at the story a bit more closely.

We will start with Zacks, April 25, 2019, link here. Data points:

• adjusted 1Q19 profit of 9 cents vs a Zacks estimate of a loss of 26 cents.

Let's stop there. How in the world could Zacks be off by that much? There must have only been one analyst following Hess and he/she phoned it in. LOL. My hunch is this: the analyst simply took the year-ago adjusted loss of 27 cents and revised the 1Q19 estimate by a penny. Wow.

From the linked story: The strong first-quarter results were attributed to higher hydrocarbon production, backed by prolific plays like Bakken and Gulf of Mexico.

More data points:

• Production: Exploration and Production business reported a profit of $109 million, improving from $25 million a year ago
• quarterly production: 
• 299K boepd; up almost 20% year-over-year
• crude oil: 164K bopd 1Q19 vs 134K 1Q18 (a 22% increase year-over-year)
• NGL: 40K bbls vs 37K bbls a year ago
• NG: 572K cf vs 504K cf a year ago
• pricing:
• worldwide crude oil realization of $55.91 (including the impact of hedging)
• that $55.91 represented a 6% decline year-over-year
• NGL selling price also fell to $18.46 from $21.11 a year ago
• NG: worldwide natural gas prices rose 15% to $4.43 per Mcf
• Midstream: earned $37 million, up from $28 million
• Net cash flow: $238 million at the end of 1Q19
• Cash: $2.3 billion
• Debt: $6.5 billion
• Debt-to-capitalization ratio: almost 40%

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

Hess Reclaims Bragging Rights To Largest Natural Gas Processing Plant In North Dakota -- April 27, 2019

Natural gas processing plants in North Dakota are tracked here. 

Updates

April 27, 2019: see also this post on the Vantage Pipeline.

April 27, 2019: see second comment below --

Have often theorized the Hess and Targa want to deliver ethane to a cracker and convert the ethane pipeline to propane as Alberta has a propane cracker to be built. Targa owns half of the Little Missouri gas plant and is a supplier for Gulf Coast crackers.

There has been almost no word on a cracker for years- either dead or in the quiet phase.

April 27, 2019: see first comment below --

The Alliance pipeline, which only has conditioned Nat gas, ends in Illinois where that huge Nat gas is. Palermo, ND, has a lateral to that pipeline. Conditioned gas has all the sulfides, chlorides and non carbon gases removed.

It's a good way to deliver propane and butane etc to industrial parts. Nat gas delivered to users has an upper BTU limit, so they must be removed.

Original Post   

See tag, "NG_Plants_ND," although I have failed to tag a lot of posts that should have been tagged. My bad.

For gas plants in North Dakota, the "official site" of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, link here.

I could be wrong, but when one thinks of natural gas processing in North Dakota, this is sort of the status in chronological order:

• Hess is the oldest; has always been there; has made Tioga what it is -- the oil capital of ND (Williston is "Boom Town, USA"); if Hess was "ND Gas" it was somewhat local;
• ONEOK was the big "outsider" to come into North Dakota at the very beginning of the boom; it probably did more than any other company to move the Bakken natural gas industry along; it deserves a lot of credit for having so much "faith" in North Dakota
• Oasis: one of the independent, small operators who saw the potential for NG plants; may have the largest plant (at one time it did, apparently, but I've lost track of who has the biggest plant now); updated below;
• CLR: does a lot of natural gas gathering but not known (at least in my mind) as a NG operator in the Bakken

All of that as background for newbies. If others have a different perspective on history of NG gathering and processing in the Bakken I would love to hear that, and post it (anonymously, of course, if so desired).

Disclaimer: I estimate that I understand 1% of all that is going on in the Bakken with regard to crude oil; I understand even less about the natural gas industry.

Hess to expand its natural gas processing capacity at its Tioga Gas Plant by 150 million cubic feet per day, creating a total of 400 million cfpd processing capacity north of the Missouri River. Link here.

• cost: the expansion to cost approximately $150 million gross; or, 
• $30 million net to Hess Midstream
•  will add residue and y-grade liquids processing capacity to the existing full fractionation and ethane extraction capability of the current plant
• I've forgotten but I believe Hess has a huge pipeline moving ethane from its Tioga plant to Canada (one pipeline not killed by the Obama administration)

Digression: this is really cool. For newbies, I have always divided the ND oil footprint into two geographic areas, the north and the south. The north would be the Bakken boom on both sides of the river; the south would be the legacy Red River wells and some Bakken in the southwestern part of the state. But looks like one can be a bit more specific, with four geographic areas:

• north of the river, Bakken boom (CLR)
• south of the river, excluding the reservation, Bakken boom (everyone)
• the reservation, south of the river, Bakken boom (KOG, now Whiting, Senator Dorgan)
• southwestern North Dakota: legacy Red River, and some Bakken boom (CLR)

Now back to Hess.

Again, repeating: for gas plants in North Dakota, the "official site" of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, link here.

At that link, scroll down to see the spreadsheet. You can click on the spreadsheet to make it bigger. The spreadsheet now goes out to 2021. Oasis had bragging rights: it has the largest natural gas processing plant -- Wild Basin had a capacity of 320 million cfpd. The Oasis Wild Basin plant is in McKenzie County, south of the river.

But now Hess has reclaimed bragging rights. With its planned expansion, it will have a capacity of 400 million cfpd. 

How does 400 million cfpd compare with other natural gas processing plants across the US? I'm glad you asked.

See the EIA summary at this link. Wow, make my day. Making America great. Yeah, 400 million cfpd is huge, but there are plants out there with 1 billion and 2 billion cfpd capacity. The west has a few huge plants, but look at the number and size of the plants in Texas.

Okay, hold that image.

Now, move up to the northeast. Hard to make that out? Go to this link with this graphic:

Pretty impressive, huh?

Besides the "blue dots," there is something else of interest. Look at all the grey -- the shale plays. The graphic did not break out conventional plays and many (most?) of the shale plays overlap/extend the conventional plays.

Most surprising "data points" on that graph, at least for me, two:

• the size of the Illinois blue dot; and, 
• that huge shale play in Michigan; see this link; the narrative is very, very good

Well, that should keep enthusiasts busy all weekend. Go to the links, which will take you to more links, and before you know it, you will be in so deep in a rabbit hole, you will never get out. LOL. 

Summary Of The May, 2019, NDIC Hearing Dockets

NDIC posts the hearing dockets here.

Dockets are tracked here.

The usual disclaimer applies. As usual this is done very quickly and using shorthand for my benefit. There will be factual and typographical errors on this page. Do not quote me on any of this. It's for my personal use to help me better understand the Bakken. Do not read it. If you do happen to read it, do not make any investment, financial, job, relationship, or travel plans based on anything you read here or think you may have read here. If this stuff is important to you, and I doubt that it is, but if it is, go to the source.

Note: the overlapping units are getting larger and larger; the units are often composed of smaller-than-full sections; it's difficult to abbreviate the description and/or visualize the overlapping unit; expect many typographical errors in the summary below; if this is important to you, go to the source.

See more at this post regarding case #27556.

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

One continuation case, #26073. 

Wednesday, May 22, 2019 -- Six Pages

27517, Oasis, Enget Lake-Bakken, establish two 1920-acre units; 12 wells on each unit; Mountrail
27518, Kraken Operating, Oliver-Bakken, establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit; one well; Williams County
27519, Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC, Manitou-Bakken; establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit; one well; Mountrail County
27520, Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC, Big Bulch and/or Cedar Coulee-Bakken; establish an overlapping 2560-are unit; one well; Dunn County
27521, Hess, Tioga-Bakken, relief from 1220-foot setback policy for a specific well; Mountrail County
27522, True Oil LLC, Red Wing Creek-Madison, setback rules, McKenzie County
27523, Bruin E&P, treaters at the wellhead or wellheads at the Missouri Pad in section 14-152-94; McKenzie County
27524, Petro-Hunt, Charlson-Bakken, establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit; one well; McKenzie
27525, EnvinoVault, indirect flameless tank heating unit; tank farm,
27526, Petro-Hunt, West Ambrose-Bakken; four wells on a standup 1280-acre unit; Divide County
27527, Petro-Hunt, Alexandria-Bakken, four wells on each of two standup 1280-acre units; Divide
27528, Hess, commingling
27529, Hess, commingling
27530, Hess, Alkali Creek-Bakken, fifteen wells on a standup 1280-acre unit, sections 25/36-154-94, Mountrail County; see this post;
27531, Hess, pooling
27532, Hess, pooling
27533, Whiting, pooling
27534, Whiting, pooling
27535, Whiting, pooling
27536, Whiting, pooling
27537, Whiting, pooling
25738, Whiting, pooling
27539, Whiting, pooling
27540, Whiting, pooling
27541, Whiting, pooling
27542, Whiting, pooling
27543, Whiting, pooling
27544, Whiting, pooling
27545, BR, commingling
27546, Bruin E&P, pooling
27547, Petro Harvester, SWD

Thursday, May 23, 2019 -- Ten Pages

27548, NDIC, review the TA status of the Cobra Oil well, #1 Sagaser, file #9920, Temple Field, Williams County
27549, NDIC, consider appropriate spacing for wells completed in Lost Bridge-Bakken, in the 2560-acre unit, 7/18/19/30-148-96; Dunn County
27550, XTO, Haystack Butte-Bakken, amend, establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit; 20/21/28/29-149-97; one well; McKenzie County
27551, North Range Resources, LLC, authorize recompletion of the Duncan Federal 30-24 well (file #6959), Scairt Woman Field; into the Duperow Formation; section 30-145-99, McKenzie County
27552, Newfield, South Tobacco Garden-Bakken, amend, establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit, 28/29/32/33-150-99, one section line well; McKenzie
27553, Liberty Resources, East Tioga-Bakken; allow one lease-line well on the east-west orientation, rather than a north-south orientation on an existing overlapping 2560-acre unit; also, for the White Earth and/or East Tioga-Bakken, i) establish two overlapping laydown 1280-acre units; 25/26- and 35/36-158-94, 8 wells on each; ii) amend, decrease the number of wells on an existing standup 1280-acre unit, 25/36-158-94, from eight wells to one well; and, iii) terminate an existing standup 1280-acre unit, 26/35-158-94; all in Mountrail County
27554, WPX, Spotted Horn-Bakken, establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit, 15/16/21/22-150-94; one well; McKenzie County
27555, Slawson, Big Bend-Bakken, i) establish an overlapping 2240-acre unit, 10/11/12-151-92 and 7-151-92; seven wells; ii) establish an overlapping 5120-acre unit, 24/25/36-152-92; 19/30/31-152-91; 1-151-92; and, 6-151-91, fifteen wells on that overlapping 5120-acre unit; iii) decrease the number of wells on each existing 1280-acre unit, 24/25-152-92; and 19/30-152-91, from ten wells to three wells; v) decrease the number of wells from ten to six on the existing 1600-acre unit, 10/11/12-151-92; v) decrease the number of wells from two north/south orientation section line wells to one north/south section line well; vi) decrease the number of wells from eleven wells to ten wells on an existing 3200-acre unit, 36-152-92; 31-152-91; 1-151-92; and, 6/7-151-91; Mountrail County
27556, Slawson, Parshall-Bakken; i) establish three overlapping 1920-acre units, E/2-20/21/22/W/2-23/W/2-26/27/28/E/2-29;33/34/35-151-91; twenty wells on each of those three 1920-acre units (60 wells in all) -- see this post; ii) establish two overlapping 3840-acre units, E/2-20 and 29/ 21/22/27/28, and W/2-23 and 26; 26/27/28/33/34/35-151-91, two wells; iii) decrease the number of wells from 22 to two wells on an existing 1280-acre unit, 34/35-151-91; iv) decrease the number of wells on each of two 1600-acre units, 21/22/W/2-23; and W/2-26, 27/28-151-92, from 22 wells to two wells; Mountrail County
27557, Iron Oil Operating, Bear Butte-Bakken, i) establish two overlapping 1920-acre units, 3/10/15-148-101; and 4/9/16-148-101; multiple horizontal wells on each unit; ii) decrease the number of wells from seven to one on each of two existing 1280-acre units; 3/10-148-101; and 3/9-148-101; McKenzie County
27558, CLR, Haystack Butte-Bakken, a drilling of a section line well on an existing 2560-acre unit; Dunn County
27559, Whiting, revoking case #27089, the application of Kraken Oil & Gas, amending the field rules for the Sanish-Bakken as follows: i) establish four overlapping 1280-acre units with fourteen wells on each of these units; 21/28-154-92; 29/30-154-92; 31/32-154-92; and 33/34-154-92; ii) establish two overlapping 1920-acre unit, fourteen wells on each of these two units; 15/22/27-154-92; and 3/4/5-153-92; Mountrail County
27560, Nine Point Energy; revoke the Stallion 33-28 XW 1H well (#35841); Ragged Butte-Bakken; or alternatively designating Nine Point Energy as the operator for the well; McKenzie County
27561, WPX, pooling
27562, CLR, pooling
27563, CLR, Pershing-Bakken, two section line wells; of each of two 2560-acre units, 13/24-150-97 and 18/19-150-96; 25/36-150-97; McKenzie County
27564, RimRock Oil & Gas, pooling
27565, XTO, pooling
27566, XTO, pooling
27565, XTO, pooling
27568, XTO, pooling
27569, Slawson, pooling
27570, Slawson, commingling
27571, Newfield, pooling
27572, Newfield, pooling
27573, Newfield, pooling
27574, Equinor, Williston-Bakken, nine wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; 3/10-154-100; Williams County
27575, WPX, commingling
27576, WPX, commingling
27577, Crescent Point Energy, SWD, file #33755 conversion, Williams County
27578,  Dakota Fluid Solutions, SWD
27579, Nine Point Energy, two SWD wells, Williams County

Section 25/36-154-94 -- Hess -- Alkali Creek -- April 27, 2019

See NDIC hearing dockets, May, 2019, link here.

Case 27530, Hess, Alkali Creek-Bakken, fifteen wells on a standup 1280-acre unit, sections 25/36-154-94, Mountrail County

Again, this is a hearing dockets case, not a permit.

Assuming I did not make a mistake looking at the NDIC map, this is what that drilling unit looks like today:

I count twelve wells already there. Now, Hess is looking to put an additional 15 wells there?

When I first started the blog, it was my impression most folks thought there would be one well per section. I was the first to post that "if you had one well, you would definitely have four; you might have eight, and you could possibly have twelve." The early graphics by CLR suggested as many as 24 to 48 wells in a 1280-acre drilling unit but that was a long, long time ago. I haven't posted those schematics in a long, long time. But here we go -- upwards of  24 wells in a single drilling unit.