WPX: Huge Well, Small Frack --December 17, 2020

Active rigs:

$48.12	12/17/2020	12/17/2019	12/17/2018	12/17/2017	12/17/2016
Active Rigs	14	52	68	53	40

Two wells coming off the confidential list: Thursday, December 17, 2020:

• 37317, drl/A,  WPX, Topaz 24-13HF, Mandaree, t--; cum 26K in 13 days extrapolates to 60,000 bbls over 30 days; Topaz wells are tracked here;
  
• 36684, drl/A, Hess, BL-Iverson C-155-96-2314H-7, Tioga, t--; cum 86K 10/20;

RBN Energy: a novel effort to recover diluent for reuse in Alberta's oil sands.

As bitumen production in Alberta’s oil sands has grown over the past decade, so has demand for diluent, which is blended with molasses-like bitumen to help it flow through pipelines or be transported by rail. 

With bitumen output expected to continue rising through the first half of the 2020s, we have estimated that Alberta demand for field condensate, natural gasoline and other diluent will increase by more than 40% — to almost 1 MMb/d — by 2025. 

The catch is, diluent production in Western Canada isn’t growing fast enough to keep pace, and there are limits to how much diluent can be imported on the two existing pipelines from the U.S. What if there were a way to slash how much diluent is needed to put bitumen in rail tank cars — and make rail transport safer in the process? 

Today, we discuss Gibson Energy and US Development Group’s new diluent recovery unit in Hardisty, AB.

Fracking. the well:

• 37317, drl/A,  WPX, Topaz 24-13HF, Mandaree, t--; cum 26K in 13 days extrapolates to 60,000 bbls over 30 days; fracked 9/19/20 - 9/25/20; only 5 million gallons of water; 83.4% water by mass; Topaz wells are tracked here;