A Closer Look At A Hess Tioga Fossaa Well That Might Be Considered A "Wildcat" -- January 10, 2021

Hess has really stepped up their game this past year or so. They operate in (some of) the oldest oil fields in North Dakota and are now reporting huge wells, not something we saw from Hess early on. 

Hess will report another great well this week, this one from the Tioga oil field, probably as old as the Beaver Lodge oil field, maybe older.

The well:

• 37201, conf, Hess, TI-Fossaa-158-94-1819H-1, 33-061-04638, Tioga, fracked 6/20/20 - 7/2/20, 7.9 million gallons of water; 80.3% water by mass; not a particularly big frack:
  

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2020	10793	12189
10-2020	7147	6800
9-2020	15582	16144
8-2020	25354	45883
7-2020	1010	3253

Interestingly enough, there are a lot of old vertical wells in this immediate area, but almost no Bakken activity. In fact, as a Bakken well, it comes very close to being a "wildcat." It is definitely not in what would appear to be a Tier 1 area; Tier 2 at best and possibly would have been considered Tier 3 some years ago.

But look at this, the nearest well to #37201, TI-Fossaa is #5350, first drilled back in March, 1974, forty-seven years ago. Wow. Initially it was a vertical well targeting the Madison formation and produced over a half-million bbls of oil before it was finally brought off line in September, 2019. 

Then it was re-enterd as a short, very short, middle Bakken horizontal. I'm assuming that it was re-entered as a middle Bakken; there is no sundry form to explain anything. FracFocus has no data on this well:

• 5350, 244, Hess, Tioga-Madison Unit L-146XHR, Tioga, t3/74; cum 523K 9/19;

So, let's take a look at another well in this section that is also a very, very short horizontal:

• 371, 549, Hess, Tioga-Madison Unit K-147HR, Tioga, t9/53, cum 383K 10/11; it was also a re-entry well, but the last date given for this well was 8/14; it looks like the re-entry was accomplished in 2014; a note found on the re-entry diagram: "Fish left in abandoned leg at 8,741' MD." Shortly after that the operator requested to plub and permanently abandon this well. 

This well was identified by the landowner as an abandoned well that the operator was not returning to original condition. That appears to have been accomplished. 

This is an incredible well (#37201), considering the local history. If the landowner also has mineral rights, this might be good news for all involved.

If Hess can duplicate this well, one would think this area might now be a Tier 1 location in the Bakken.