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From a reader, thank you very much. A little bit of history prompted by recent posting of the XTO Athena permits. See below the fold.
From the reader:
The new XTO Athena drill sites (3-154-96) are located in the same section as two of North
Dakota's earliest attempts to find oil.
The Big Viking well was started in 1928 about 500 feet
south of the new XTO Athena sites.
The California Company Nels Kamp #1, was a 1938 attempt was just a few hundred
feet north of these new XTO locations.
The Big Viking well only drilled to 4600 feet.
The Nels Kamp well was the first legitimate drilling
attempt in North Dakota. It went to 10,200 feet, through the Bakken and Three Forks zones but did not
detect any oil or gas shows. The test was abandoned after drill pipe became stuck in the hole.
Twelve years
later, Amerada began drilling the Clarence Iverson discovery well a few miles northeast of the Kamp location.
On April 5, 1951 [the year the blog author was born] commercial oil production began from the Devonian formation.
Several months later, Amerada found oil in the Madison formation at the Henry Bakken well just north of
Tioga. It was a geologist at this well that is credited with "naming" the Bakken zone when drilling through
this section of rock.
Previously some geologists had called this formation the Engelwood after a similar formation in Canada.
The Bakken name stuck!
What I find most amazing about this, is with very limited information, geologists "predicted" oil in this part of the world. Simply amazing. And, again, since 1951 --- 74 years of productive drilling in North Dakota.
Of the five parameters geologists key in with regard to production ( maturity, porosity, permeability, trapping, TOC, thickness), I would argue TOC is the most important ... well, let me backtrack.
Of course maturity is the most important. But all things being equal, the importance of those parameters varies depending on whether the well is conventional (vertical, trapped pool) or unconventional (horizontal, shale).
With a trapped pool, trapping and thickness are most important. I wouldn't think maturity would be that important, again, all else being equal.
However, with an unconventional well, there's another factor a lot of folks don't mention (actually two factors): the skill of the driller -- keeping the horizontal bore in the seam for two to three miles; and the "method" of completion / fracking / stimulation (the amount of proppant; the type of proppant).
With unconventional drilling these importance of the various factors, in descending order: keeping the horizontal bore in the seam; amount of proppant used in fracking; and TOC. Early on in the Bakken, there was a lot of emphasis on the type of proppant (sand versus ceramics). Over time that argument seemed to fade, as economics took over (sand, cheap; ceramics, expensive) (sand, relatively abundant; ceramics, constrained).
Another interesting phenomenon, the Hubbert Peak Theory seems to apply to conventional drilling, but does not apply at all to unconventional drilling. In conventional drilling, once a well or a field or a basin starts to deplete, it does not recover. Completely the opposite with regard to unconventional drilling. Of course, depletion becomes a factor in unconventional drilling at some point, but re-fracking, new fracking, and improved fracking techniques will reverse a depleting trend. [By the way, never discussed -- this fact has been used by operators to their advantage with regard to tax policy, specifially the depletion allowance and designation of stripper wells.]
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Athena Wells
Multiple Operators Have "Athena" Wells
Multiple Oil Fields In The Williston Basin
From April 11, 2025, link here. Six new permits, #41799 - #41804, inclusive:
- Operator: XTO
- Field: Grinnell (Williams County)
- Comments:
- XTO has permits for six GBU Athena wells, lot 2, section 3-154-96,
- to be sited 1109 FNL and 2240 / 2390 FEL.
Do not confuse with other "Athena" wells.
From February 7, 2020, link here:
- 22168, 358, Slawson, Athena 5-36TFH, Alger, t4/12; cum 11K 5/12; 15 stages; no ceramics mentioned; cum 157K 2/25; F;
From July 25, 2012, link here:
- 21408, 700, Slawson, Athena 2-36H, Alger, t4/12; cum 33K 5/12; sand frac; I did not see ceramics listed; cum 281K 2/25; F;
Others:
- 34841, 1,012, Enerplus, Athena 149-93-33C-28H-TF, Mandaree, t6/19; cum 57K 10/19; 17K/month; cum 237K 2/25;
- 22164, 693, Slawson, Athena 3-36H, Alger, 11/12; cum 13K 1/13; cum 200K 2/25; F;
-
18712, 1,391, Slawson, SESW 36-155N-92W, Athena 1-36H, Alger, s6/11; F; t8/11; cum 219K 8/14; cum 335K 2/25; F;
