A Closer Look At A Hess BB-Olson Well In Blue Buttes -- September 24, 2023

Locator: 45570B.

Disclaimer: I often make typographical and content errors when blogging and transcribing. In a long note like this there could be many such errors (but I doubt it, some, but not many). I often make simple arithmetic errors. 

If this stuff is important to you, go to the source. It's not particularly important to me, but I find it incredibly fascinating. 

The operators are measuring total depth of these Baken wells to the nearest hundredth of a foot (or 0.12 inches) -- and TD is two miles "down" and upwards of two to three miles horizontal. This particular well was a "short / 1-mile" lateral.

One-mile laterals are being drilled in less than a day. The curves are being built in 12 hours. The vertical portion of these wells are being drilled in "a day." Drilling time for a Three Forks short lateral is less than three days? 

Proppant: no longer using very, very expensive ceramic, but all sand?

11/19: #35260. November -- beginning to get pretty cold in North Dakota by this time of the of the year, but not as cold as it will be in February. Drilled in the summer (July); fracked in November. As of September 22, 2023, permits number 40232. 

Back-of-the-envelope:

• 40232 - 35260 = 4972
• September, 2023 to September, 2019 = 48 months = 103 permits / month = 1243 permits / year; completing about 750 wells / year (?).

 The well:

• 35260, 3,044, Hess, BB-Olson 150-95-09H-7, Blue Buttes, t11/19; cum 278K 7/23; no halo effect; 12 stages; 5.09 million lbs proppant; sand 40/70 and 30/50; Three Forks, 
• From the file report:
• logging services began at 11:15 p.m., July 19, 2019, at the Kibbey Lime formation; 
• KOP Lodgepole, 10,265' MD reached at 5:23 a.m. on July 19, 2019 (sic); building of the curve began at 3:21 p.m. July 19, 2019; upper Bakken shale encountered at 10,728' MD, 10,593' TVD, exact to the prognosis; average gas at 1719 units; middle Bakken encountered at 10,768' MD, 10,616 TVD, which was 1' low of the prognosis; penetration rate averaged 161 ft/hour as the curve was built through the middle Bakken; gas values averaged 918 units, with a max of 1740 units; lower Bakken shale encountered at 10,846' MD, 10,645' TVD, 1' low of prognosis; highest gas reading in the lower Bakken was 993 units; average was 784 units; penetration averaged 182 ft/hour as the curve was built through the shale. The 
• Three Forks was encountered at 10,913' MD, 10,680' TVD, 3' low of prognosis; penetration rates averaged 158 ft/hour as the remainder of the curve was built through the Three Forks, gas values averaged 752 units, with a max of 1493 units. 
• A curve TD of 11,068' MD was reached at 1:00 a.m. on July 20, 2019, at 10,698.51' TVD (a hundredth foot = 0.12 inches). 
• TD of 15,896' MD, 10,690.61' TVD as projected, at 4:20 a.m. on July 23, 2019; gas levels averaged 1173 units; with a maximum of 5,416 units; ROP averaged 291 ft/hr. The well bore tracked the Three Forks 1000% of the lateral.
• the lateral: a curve TD of 11,068' MD with TD of 15,896' MD = 4,828 feet. The rate of penetration drilling the lateral was 291 feet / hour. The lateral, 4,828 feet divided by 291 feet/hour = 16.6 hours. 
• Did they drill this "one-mile / short lateral" in less than a day?