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Saturday, February 5, 2022

Update Of A Whiting Well In Tier 2, Maybe Tier 3 -- January 17, 2022

The well:

  • 30201, conf-->loc/A, Whiting, Klose 21-27-3H, Glass Bluff, nice production, this one is really on the Bakken fringe; south of the river, to the far west; not much out there; not even sage grouse; cum 128K 11/21; 55 stages; 13.8 million lbs proppants
PoolDateDaysBBLS OilRunsBBLS WaterMCF ProdMCF SoldVent/Flare
BAKKEN11-2021301020010190319021377813115135
BAKKEN10-202131127961277232377129591234651
BAKKEN9-2021301096511248344541120110451375
BAKKEN8-202131164941621151959161731614825
BAKKEN7-2021311739417575484611157690792497
BAKKEN6-2021302365923605599001361573156300
BAKKEN5-202124154481550037507112531122033
BAKKEN4-20212420664203734400614809148090

By the way, something very interesting on this scout report. This is probably something that "happens all the time," but this is the first time I have seen it, and then looked at the file report to see why.

See if you can spot the interesting data point in this screenshot:


Later: a reader suggested the interesting data point ... my not-ready-for-prime-time reply --

I am so sorry to waste your time with something so trivial, but for me, following the Bakken like I do, it's important.

The permit expired in 2015.

Generally when a permit expires, if it is not renewed within a year, it suggests to me the operator no longer cares for that site, no matter what. The operator may even be planning to sell the mineral rights in that area.

In this case, the waiver expired in 2015 and wasn't renewed until 2019, four years later. That really caught me by surprise --  such a long gap. The mom-and-pop mineral owners would have thought this site was "long gone."

Often when a permit expires it is simply an oversight and the NDIC sends a letter to the operator saying the permit is about to expire and asking if they want to renew the permit.

In this case, the NDIC sent the letter, and something I had not seen before, the operator told the NDIC to let the permit expire and go PNC (permit now canceled) because the operator had no desire to drill the well in the current price environment.

That usually means the end of that permit "forever." If the operator wants to drill there in the future, the operator will submit a new permit and add an "R" (revised) to the original name.

In this case, in 2019, the operator came back and renewed the permit.

The reason this is important to me: operators let a huge number of permits expire in 2019 and 2020. I assume those permits would be "lost forever," but it now appears it's relatively easy to go back and renew an old permit. There's a ton of EXP permits and I've always thought they would eventually come back to them. A lot of money went into all the work to do the surveys, etc. necessary for a permit application.

One reader suggested to me a long time ago, that operators would easily let permits expire, that cost of developing a permit were not onerous. I don't think I replied, because I did not, but time and expense would not be trivial, in my estimation.

Trivial, but it caught my attention, how things work in the North Dakota.

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