Regular Readers Already Know This: Shale Results in Increased Ethylene Exports

RBN Energy deserves a huge "thank you" for all they did to educate readers about ethylene, natural gas liquids, etc.

Here's a link to a story in the Oil and Gas Journal:

A natural gas liquids boom stemming from development of US shale plays will spur investments in export-related petrochemical plans targeting Latin American market, Energy Security Analysis Inc. (ESAI) said in a recent report.

With US demand for ethylene derivatives growing modestly, expanding petrochemical capacity will be export-oriented. ESAI expects the US surplus of ethylene derivatives to expand to over 4 million tonnes/year by 2016, a 40% increase from 2011.

In response to increased liquids production from Marcellus and Utica shales in Pennsylvania and Ohio, Royal Dutch Shell selected a site near Pittsburgh for the potential construction of a petrochemical complex.

The Bakken was not mentioned, but the Bakken is also contributing.

Mega-Pads in the Bakken: QEP and WPX in Heart Butte and Deep Water Creek Bay

Mike Filloon mentioned that QEP has finished drilling all the wells on its 10-well pad. There are two fields in which QEP has a number of multi-well pads: Heart Butte and Deep Water Creek Bay.

Heart Butte is an interesting field, a very active field, and one with much history -- for a boom that's in its early stages. The oil field first caught my eye back in March, 2010, when I was transcribing the NDIC hearing dockets for that month:

• 12284: Questar, extending the Heart Butte Field and creating 24 640-acre spacing units in Dunn, McLean and Mountrail Counties, with two horizontal wells in each (48 wells)

This was before Questar split of QEP.

The Heart Butte oil field was also the focus for the Arrow Pipeline, a huge deal at the time for many reasons.

So, now we wait for the IPs for the ten wells that QEP has just completed.

Here are some multi-well QEP pads and WPX pads in Heart Butte and Deep Water Creek Bay:
Two 5-well pads, section 3-149-92:

23331, 2,282, QEP, MHA 1-03-34H-150-92, Heart Butte, 4 sec, t3/13; cum 42K 5/13;
23332, 2,348, QEP, MHA 3-03-34H-150-92, Heart Butte, 2 sec, t3/13; cum 48K 5/13;
23333, 2,310, QEP, MHA 1-03-35H-150-92, Heart Butte, 4 sec, t3/13; cum 40K 5/13;
23334, 1,949, QEP, MHA 3-03-35H-150-92, Heart Butte, 4 sec, t3/13; cum 35K 5/13;
23335, 1,791, QEP, MHA 2-03-35H-150-92, Heart Butte, 4 sec, t3/13; cum 27K 5/13;
23336, conf, QEP, Heart Butte,
23337, conf, QEP, Heart Butte,
23338, conf, QEP, Heart Butte,
23339, conf, QEP, Heart Butte,
23340, conf, QEP, Heart Butte,

Two 5-well pads:

• 23093, conf, QEP, Heart Butte, 
• 23094, conf, QEP, Heart Butte, 
• 23095, conf, QEP, Heart Butte, 
• 23096, conf, QEP, Heart Butte, 
• 23097, conf, QEP, Heart Butte, 
• 23098, 1,632, QEP, MHA 4-06-32H-150-92, Heart Butte, t2/13; cum 24K 5/13;
• 23099, 1,994, QEP, MHA 2-06-32H-150-92, Heart Butte, t2/13; cum 33K 5/13;
• 23100, 1,922, QEP, MHA 3-06-32H-150-92, Heart Butte, t2/13; cum 52K 5/13;
• 23101, 1,777, QEP, MHA 1-06-32H-150-92, Heart Butte, t2/13; cum 107K 5/13;
• 23102, 1,966, QEP, MHA 4-06-31H-150-92, Heart Butte, t2/13; cum 51K 5/13;

Two 5-well pads, 31-150-91
(I don't know if this is the 10-well pad Filloon is referring to), Heart Butte:

• 21551, 2,757, QEP, MHA 3-31-25H-150-92, 4 sec, t10/12; cum 89K 5/13;
• 21552, 2,351, QEP, MHA 2-31-25H-150-92, 4 sec, t10/12; cum 74K 5/13;
• 21553, 2,202, QEP, MHA 4-31-25H-150-92, 4 sec, t10/12; cum 85K 5/13;
• 21554, 2,430, QEP, MHA 1-31-30H-150-91, 4 sec, t10/12; cum 78K 5/13;
• 21556, 2,376, QEP, MHA 3-31-30H-150-91, 4 sec, t10/12; cum 70K 5/13;
• 21557, 2,140, QEP, MHA 1-31-36H-15-92, 4 sec, t5/13; cum 14K 5/13;
• 21558, 2,359, QEP, MHA 3-31-36H-150-92, 4 sec, t5/13; cum 18K 5/13;
• 21559, 2,032, QEP, MHA 5-31-25H-150-92, 4 sec, t5/13; cum 12K 5/13;
• 21560, 673 QEP, MHA 7-31-25H-150-92, 4 sec, t5/13; cum 19K 5/13;
• 21561, 1,731, QEP, MHA 1-31-25H-150-92, 4 sec, t5/13; cum 9K 5/13;

32-150-91, Heart Butte; one 4-well pad and one 2-well pad

• 20487, 606, QEP, t11/11; cum 160K 5/13;
• 20488, 1,571, QEP, t11/11; cum 182K 5/13;
• 20489, 933, QEP, t11/11; cum 141K 5/13;
• 20490, 2,609, QEP, t11/11; cum 243K 5/13;


• 22028, 2,737, QEP,  MHA 2-32-29H-150-91, t11/12; cum 91K 5/13;
• 22029, 1,961, QEP, MHA 4-32-29H-150-91, t11/12; cum 84K 5/13;

A 3-well pad, and two 4-well pads in 31-148-92, Heart Butte:

• 22649, 709, WPX, Charles Blackhawk 31-30HA, t11/12; cum 63K 5/13;
• 22650, 247, WPX, Charles Blackhawk 31-30HX, t11/12; cum 50K 5/13;
• 22651, 219, WPX, Charles Blackhawk 31-30HB, t11/12; cum 62K 5/13;

• 22652, conf, WPX, Charles Balckhawk 31-30HY, 
• 22653, conf, WPX, Charles Blackhawk 31-30HC, 
• 22654, conf, WPX, Charles Blackhawk 31-30HZ,
• 22655, conf, WPX, Charles Blackhawk 31-30HD,

• 21904, 1,542, QEP, MHA 4-06-07H-147-92, Heart Butte, t8/20/12; cum 101K 5/13;
• 21905, 2,223, QEP, MHA 2-06-07H-147-92, Heart Butte, t8/17/12; cum 81K 5/13;
• 21906, 2,142, QEP, MHA 4-32-33H-148-92, Heart Butte, t8/15/12; cum 75K 5/13;
• 21908, 2,180, QEP, MHA 2-32-33H-148-92, Heart Butte, t8/22/12; cum 83K 5/13;

5-149-90, Deep Water Creek Bay

• 21091, 499, QEP, t7/12; cum 54K 5/13; 
• 21092, 436, QEP, t7/12; cum 51K 5/13; 
• 21093, 878, QEP, t7/12; cum 72K 5/13; 
• 21116, 952, QEP, t4/12; ccum 70K 5/13; 
• 21824, 814, QEP, t4/12; cum 53K 5/13; 

18-150-90, Deep Water Creek Bay

• 17434, 880, QEP, t1/09; cum 145K 5/13;
• 17940, 1,217, QEP, t1/10; cum 211K 5/13;
• 18930, PNC, QEP
• 18991, 1,053, QEP, t9/10; cum 148K 5/13;
• 19683, 766, QEP,  t12/11; cum 115K 5/13;
• 20271, 592, QEP, t12/11; cum 102K 5/13; 

Some time ago I mentioned that I was no longer tagging/labeling "multi-well pads" because this was becoming too commonplace. I am now tagging/labeling "mega-pads"which have more than 5 wells on the pad. This is different than the tag "mega-units" which generally refers to 2560-acre spacing units, but at least 1,920 acres.

Note: there may be some errors on the data above; it was done quickly and not double-checked.

In The Marcellus: Drilling Ten (10) Natural Gas Wells From One Pad

Link here.

In Central Pennsylvania, CONSOL has finished drilling all ten wells on the Hutchinson pad in northwestern Westmoreland County. The 10-well Hutchinson pad, the company believes, is the industry's largest single pad drilled to date in the Marcellus Shale.

Remember: the October hearing dockets has a case presented by QEP for ten wells on a 2560-acre spacing unit. Case 15695. They may not all be on the same pad, but there's not much land to work with in this area where much of it is under water (Missouri River). It will be interesting to follow.

Case 15695:

Application of QEP Energy Co. for an order amending the field rules for the Heart Butte and/or Van Hook Fields creating one 2560-acre spacing unit in the Bakken Pool described as Sections 2 and 3, T.149N., R.92W., Dunn and Mountrail Counties, ND and Sections 34 and 35, T.150N., R.92W., Mountrail County, ND authorizing the drilling of up to ten horizontal wells within each spacing unit at any location .....

Update: screenshot taken May 8, 2014:

The ten wells sit on two 5-well pads, all spaced at four sections:

• 23331, 2,282, QEP, MHA 1-03-34H-150-92, t3/13; cum 114K 3/14;
• 23332, 2,348, QEP, MHA 3-03-34H-150-92, t3/13; cum 116K 3/14;
• 23333, 2,310, QEP, MHA 1-03-35H-150-92, t3/13; cum 110K 3/14;
• 23334, 1,949, QEP, MHA 3-03-35H-150-92, t3/13; cum 90K 3/14;
• 23335, 1,791, QEP, MHA 1-03-35H-150-92, t3/13; cum 74K 3/14;
• 23336, 1,386, QEP, MHA 4-03-35H-150-92, t12/13; cum 21K 3/14;
• 23337, 873, QEP, MHA 1-03-02H-149-92, t12/13; cum 12K 3/14;
• 23338, 1,831, QEP, MHA 3-03-02H-149-92, t12/13; cum 28K 3/14;
• 23339, 2,217, QEP, MHA 2-03-02H-149-92, t12/13; cum 46K 3/14;
• 23340, 2,306, QEP, MHA 4-03-02H-149-92, t12/13; cum 67K 3/14;