Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood -- January 30, 2020

Covey's seven habits, #5: seek first to understand, then to be understood.

This is really cool.

A reader asked me earlier whether I reported every Bakken well or just the better ones.

I replied that I report every Bakken well that comes off the confidential list as reported by the NDIC.

There seemed to be a disconnect how I perceived the question, how I answered it, and what the reader was asking or seeing.

Then it dawned on me.

The reader is correct. I missed his point.

I do report every Bakken well that comes off the confidential list. I have not missed any since 2010 and perhaps earlier.

But the reader is correct. I generally don't report the monthly production data for wells unless the monthly production data is particularly noteworthy and/or part of a story I'm trying to tell and/or part of the production data for a family of wells.

I hope that makes sense.

The reader is correct. A casual glance at the blog would suggest "all" Bakken wells are great wells, or even monster wells, because I show the production data for the better Bakken wells. In fact, as long-term readers know, the vast majority of Bakken wells are not monster wells.

But every Bakken well has a story to tell, and I try to tell as many as I can.