History Of The Bakken -- Are We Ready For Bakken 4.5? -- August 16, 2020

Pad drilling: I had expected to see this earlier, maybe a year ago, but we are finally seeing it -- the "mass effect" pad drilling. See the list of wells coming off the confidential list this next week -- we've seen this off and on over the last twelve months, but it's now become the norm. I think it's too early to call it Bakken 4.5 but I'm considering it.

Bakken 4.5 would be "pad completions become the norm" in the Bakken.

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History Of The Bakken

This was posted here.

From FAQs.

82a. What do you mean by Bakken 2.0? See this post. Important data points:

• June, 2007: the very early days of the Bakken boom; began in Montana, 2000; Bakken 1.0
• October 19, 2016: the beginning of Bakken 2.0
• the event that triggered the Bakken 2.0 designation: the SM Energy announcement that it was selling some Bakken acreage/assets to Oasis
• it appears Permian Shale 2.0 began with the WPX, Noble, and XOM announcements regarding acquisitions in the Permian -- late 2016/early 2017

82b. What do you mean by Bakken 2.5? See this post.

• Bakken 1.0: began in the summer of 2007; it was originally tagged "Bakken101" and I continue to use the "Bakken101" tag 
• Bakken 2.0: October 19, 2016
• Bakken 2.5: April 10, 2018 -- correlates/corresponds with CLR's new completion strategies; North Dakota crude oil production to set new records; increased focus on the Permian vs the Bakken
• Bakken 3.0: We go to Bakken 3.0 if the "Lynn Helms' production surge (LHPS - 2018) is sustained for six months.  Link here.

82c. Bakken 3.0 -- see above. The surge noted in 2018 certainly lasted for six months.

82d. Bakken 4.0 -- oil shock - market meltdown, 2020. Tag: "Meltdown_2020." And, of course, "Bakken_4.0.

"New" and very common well designations started appearing just as we went to Bakken 4.0: SI/A; F/A; F/NC. Link here for examples. SI/A are wells that have been completed, have come off the confidential list, but are immediately shut in, sometimes with no production or very minimal production (less than 500 bbls) but often 15 days of great production, such as 17K bbls crude oil over 14 days. I didn't know whether to highlight them in "red" or "blue," but because they came off confidential list "on time," had been completed and had production following a frack, I highlighted them in "red." F/A; F/NC were wells that producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed. It appears that in Bakken 4.0 we will have wells that come off the confidential list, or the SI/NC list, but are immediately shut in or choked back significantly. See this post, dated March 26, 2020, first time I tagged a post with "Bakken_4.0."

Bakken 101: across all "eras."

Unconventional 1.0; 2.0; and, 3.0 -- WoodMac.