A reminder: the NDIC now reports natural gas statistics for each well: the amount of natural gas produced by the well; the amount sold, and the amount vented/flared.
In the "old days,"
- MFC produced = MCF sold + vented/flared;
- MFC produced ≠ MCF sold + vented/flared
A reader provides this:
Since the DMR has added the "Flared" column in wells' production profiles, it is now possible to determine how much produced natgas is consumed or re-injected (for gas lift Artificial Lift) for each well/pad.
This is determined by starting with gross production, then subtracting amount sold, then subtracting amount flared.
The remaining balance - if any - should be the amount burned onsite to power compressors and/or generators with the rest being injected back downhole for the now near-ubiquitous (in the Bakken, soon, everywhere) gas lift approach in the Artificial Lift phase.
(There are at least 3 main subsets to this, but I am still trying to gather information).
Bottom line, using the two Lime Rock wells from today - #24511 and #-33634 - one finds: ~500 M cubic feet/month consumed for the former, with ~ 800 M cubic feet/month for the latter.
(I started tracking this months ago with the 500,000 cubic feet per month per well being about average).
Using a VERY generous 'retail' price of $2/mmbtu - essentially $2.00 for every thousand feet of natgas - these operators are 'paying' (to themselves, no less) between $1,000 and $1,600 per MONTH for the use of this natgas.
In reality, these operators - Lime Rock, in this example - are getting FREE fuel for their equipment and re-injection purposes. Equipment seems mainly to consist of the aforementioned compressors and generators.Absolutely fascinating.
Very little info seems to be in the public domain in these matters.
Some will probably sue eventually, more than likely the language in the lease will favor the oil companies.
ReplyDeleteAfter my initial post, I thought about it again For those with large stakes, like the state, they might like to look into this. For mom and pop mineral owners it would be such a small return, not worth worrying about.
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