ECO-Pad = $$$$-Pad -- June 24, 2022

Early on in the Bakken, there were many reports of small mom-and-pop mineral owners becoming millionaires overnight. 

A lot of these folks were farmers who happened to still hold their mineral rights after all these years. 

In the early days of the Bakken, operators were drilling as fast as they could for many reasons, but mostly to hold the leases by production. 

To drill that fast, operators often drilled one well in any given spacing unit

Often, the small mom-and-pop mineral owners were "living" off one well. And still becoming millionaires. Maybe some hyperbole, but not much.

Fast forward to 2022. Now, it is the norm to drill mega-pads with six wells on each pad. 

Can you imagine a small mom-and-pop mineral rights owner with one well all these years to now see six new wells coming in. All at once. And with oil at $110 / bbl. 

What a great country. 

Yesterday, as the most recent example: Oasis with six new permits on one pad. That's been the norm for quite some time. Pioneered by Harold Hamm, one might argue. 

More On Pad Drilling From A Reader -- December 12, 2021

With regard to Bakken 4.5, pad drilling, a reader writes:

A few years back, some industry executive was explaining some of the economics behind not only 4 to 6 wells per pad simultaneously being drilled/completed, but also the then-emerging trend of simultaneously developing 3 to 4 pads in close proximity.

Interesting perspective. 

Taking those six Bruin wells that you have noted for example, at $6 million per well, Bruin would have 'pre-paid' $36 million before any revenue came back. 

With a cumulative production just over half a million barrels (~511,000) and $50/bbl pricing, Bruin would have already grossed about $25 million in oil revenue and $2 million from the gas ... roughly. 

It may take till the end of a year, but Bruin may be 'in the money' after 12 month's time.

For operators doing this on, say, four pads simultaneously, the capital outlay could approach $150 million prior to any revenue coming in. 

Definitely a game for the Big Boys. 

(That executive also stressed that the logistics could be daunting trying to develop 16/20 wells simultaneously, but the 'discount/efficiencies' could be well worth it when giving a LOT of business to the chosen oil field service contractors).

By the way, there's another way for smaller companies like Bruin to pay for the fracking. [The drilling costs are almost inconsequential compared to everything else, especially fracking.] Some operators will share in the production with the servicing / fracking companies to pay off the costs of the work. I've seen that talked about elsewhere -- overseas? I don't know if it's being done in the Bakken?  

Regardless, once the cash flow starts, it becomes easier to tackle the next big project. 

 

Pad Drilling -- Update -- January 25, 2019

Re-posting. This is a must-read for those interested in the Bakken.

RBN Energy: part 2, will large-scale pad drilling buoy crude output?  An incredibly good article. I was surprised that the Bakken was not mentioned, unless I missed it.

When crude oil prices crashed in the second half of 2014 and 2015, producers survived by becoming leaner and more efficient. That transition included drastic reductions in the rates paid to services companies while wringing ever more oil and gas out of each well and, in the process, permanently altering the economics of drilling and completion. This year, producers are again facing a lower-price environment; since early October (2018), crude prices have dropped more than 30%. In the current, more conservative investment environment, can producers do it again? Can additional value be squeezed out with bigger well pads and longer laterals? Today, we continue a series exploring the benefits and risks of these highly concentrated and highly complicated operations. 

Earlier we explored the origins of pad drilling and the factors that catalyzed its widespread adoption across the oil patch. By splitting the substantial infrastructure, logistical, and rig-mobilization costs among multiple wells, pad drilling helped improve efficiency the last time crude prices dropped. That blog’s focus was on Northeast gas producers. Now we turn our attention to the crude-focused Permian. We’ll start with a look at a “mega-pad” with more than 60 wells and a couple of somewhat smaller pads, then conclude with a high-level analysis of the pros and cons of “going big.”

Archived. Episode 1 was also archived.

It seems the writer hints at the halo effect but not fully developed. 

Random Look At Six EOG Hawkeye Permits Renewed Today -- November 3, 2016

Earlier today it was noted that EOG renewed six Hawkeye permits in Antelope oil field. This will be a 7-well pad; there is already one producing well on that pad.

I'm mentioned this well in a number of locations on the blog.

• 24337, 2,519, EOG, Hawkeye 3-2413H, Antelope, middle Bakken, 28 stages; 9.7 million lbs sand; 133K in less than four months; t5/13; 2 sections; TD = 20,626 feet; cum 650K 9/16;

This may be the best post. In addition, I follow the EOG Hawkeye in Clarks Creek / Antelope area here.

This is a screenshot of the proposed 7-well pad:

And zooming out to see the general area:

Pad Drilling In The Bakken

The Minot Daily News is reporting: (the story was sent to my two readers, thank you)

In 2013, two thirds of the permits issued for drilling wells in the oil patch were for multi-pads, said Alison Ritter, public information officer for the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources in Bismarck.

The majority of operators in the Bakken are drilling multi-wells on a single pad, Ritter said. "The average number is four on a pad."

But a pad could have eight to 20, she said.

Rory Nelson, of Williston, was named North Dakota's energy impact coordinator last year. Nelson told members of the Minot Area Chamber of Commerce's Energy Committee at a meeting in Minot recently, that by drilling multi wells on a pad more of the formation can be drilled and more oil can be recovered. "It actually makes the infrastructure a little bit easier," he added.

Although pad drilling is being done by most of the Bakken operators, there are some fields with single wells drilled, Ritter said.

Continental was one of the first companies to drill multi-wells on a single pad. The company completed its first multi-wells on a single pad called ECO-Pad in 2010 in Dunn County (four wells from a single drilling pad) from the Three Forks and Middle Bakken Formations of the North Dakota Bakken, according to the company website.

Several story lines follow from that:

• one rig on a pad drilling 20 wells, could take two years to complete; mini-manufacturing site
• two 20-well pads back-to-back (across the road from each other), one rig for both pads: 4 years
• 40 wells x $7 million = $300 million just to drill, complete
• the speed with which operators moved to multi-well pad drilling has been nothing short of phenomenal
• twenty horizontal wells in close proximity leads one to consider different completion techniques
• might operators be able to frack every other horizontal and get about the same production? or frack every third horizontal? come back and frack others later? 

One might get some insight into where completion techniques are headed with Mike Filloon's article over at SeekingAlpha. 

Pad Drilling Vs Density Drilling

I'm in the middle of a swim meet, so I'm not concentrating as much as I should, so take everything I write this morning with "a grain of salt," as they say.

The Dickinson Press has a story on pad drilling today, something regular readers have known about for two, three, four years -- whenever Harold Hamm (CLR) introduced Eco-Pads, a copyright term, by the way, I believe.

In my mind, there is a difference between pad drilling and density drilling. Perhaps one can think of density drilling being a subset of pad drilling, though technically there would be no reason why density drilling couldn't be done on individual well sites, but that would be a real waste. So, for now, in my simple mind, density drilling is a subset of pad drilling. Another way one could say it, I suppose, is that density drilling is facilitated by pad drilling.

Be that as it may, the linked Dickinson Press article is about pad drilling and not density drilling.

Multi-well pads are becoming bigger and a more common sight in the western North Dakota Oil Patch.

The pads consolidate impacts to nearby landowners and the environment to one concentrated spot, rather than single wells being sprinkled across the landscape.

The wells’ coziness doesn’t extend underground though — horizontal drilling allows the wells to start in one spot but spawn in various directions, to wherever the oil is.

So far this year, 60 percent of the wells permitted were for shared pads, up from about a third from 2011, according to Department of Mineral Resources data.

Huge Article For Newbies And Investors; 36 Wells From A Single Pad; Pad Drilling Will Become The Norm In The Bakken -- Rigzone

The end of the article provides some "tips" for investors. But first, here are the six tech advances as reported by Rigzone "changing the fossil fuels game."

Pad drilling is one of the six tech advances:

One of the greatest drilling developments of the last decade is multiple well pads, which some like to refer to as “Octopus” technology.

Imagine gaining access to multiple buried wells at the same time, from a single pad site. This is what “Octopus” technology is doing, first in a canyon in northwestern Colorado in the Piceance Shale Formation and then in the Marcellus shale. It's definitely not your traditional horizontal drilling.

Traditionally, to drill a single well, a company needs a pad or land site for each well drilled. Each of these pads covers an average of 7 acres. The Octopus allows for multiple well drilling from a single pad, which can handle between 4 and 18 wells. So, a single pad on 7 acres can now be used to drill on up to 2,000 acres of reserves. More than anything, it means that drilling will be faster, faster, faster … And less expensive in the long run once it renders it unnecessary to break down rigs and put them together again at the next drilling location. It's simple math: 4 pads usually equals 4 wells; now 1 pad can equal between 4 and 18 wells.

Here's how the technology works: A well pad is set up and the first well is drilled, then the rig literally “crawls” on its hydraulic tentacles to another drill location from the same pad, repeatedly. And it's multi-directional. It takes about two hours between each well drilling. With traditional horizontal drilling methods, it takes about five days to move from pad to pad and start drilling a new well.

Last year, Devon Energy (DVN) drilled 36 wells from a single pad site using Octopus technology in the Marcellus Shale. More recently, Encana (ECA) drilled 51 wells covering 640 underground acres from a single pad site with a surface area of only 4.6 acres in Colorado. Multi-well pad drilling is also revolutionizing drilling in Bakken, and this is definitely the long-term outlook for shale. It will become the norm.

It's also good (or at least slightly better) news for the environment because it means less drilling disturbance on the surface as we render more of the process underground.

Twenty (20) New Permits -- QEP Has Permits For Another 10-Well Pad -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, June 7, 2012 --

• Operators: QEP (10), BEXP (4), CLR (2), KOG (2), OXY USA, SM Energy
• Fields: Moccasin Creek (Dunn), Tobacco Garden (McKenzie), Saddle Butte (Billings), Todd (Williams), Musta (Divide), Heart Butte (Dunn)

I didn't map the ten QEP wells, but they will all be on one pad or very, very close in section 6-149-92. There's already a producing well in that section:

• 18322, 1,742, QEP, MHA 1-06-31H-150-92 (no typo), t6/10; cum 230K 4/12; 

Back on April 9, 2012, I posted a link to a Mike Filloon post that QEP had finished drilling another 10-well pad.

Same with the BEXP wells: I didn't map them out so don't know if they will be on the same pad, but again, awful close in section 25-155-101, Todd field. These four wells will be east of the highway leading out of Williston on the north side, about two miles north of the city limits.

One well was released form "tight hole" status:

• 20622, 1,067, EOG, Fertile 48-0905H, Mountrail

Sixteen (16) New Permits -- 7-Well Pad - Heart Butte Field -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, March 26, 2012 --

Operators: WPX (7), BEXP (3), Marathon (2), Whiting (2), Zenergy, Oasis

Fields: Cottonwood, Alger, Sanish, Heart Butte, Assiniboine, Bailey

All seven WPX wells appear to be on one pad in Heart Butte.

Thirteen (13) wells released from "tight hole" status, including:

• 20509, 1,151, Slawson, Kahuna 1-7-6H, McKenzie
• 21191, 1,094, CLR, Berlain 1-30H, McKenzie
• 21204, 1,071, CLR, Kate 2-19H, Dunn

Of the thirteen wells, five were not completed/fracked, including this one, interestingly enough,

• 21125, DRL, BEXP, Kalil 25-36 2H (previously reported, however, on this blog)

Two wells on DRL status reported an IP, but not particularly remarkable.

An EOG well in Burke County was temporarily abandoned:

• 20728, TA, EOG, Vanville 17-1213H, Burke County

Comment: to the best of my knowledge, if the seven WPX wells are indeed on the same pad, this is the first time I have seen permits for a 7-well pad in North Dakota.

Based on recent NDIC hearing dockets, we should be seeing many more. Multi-well pads will reduce the number of new roads required for pads, among other cost savings.

I have updated the Heart Butte field; see link above. Note section 31, T150N-R91W with QEP's two five-well pads, with a rig on site.

• 21551, conf, QEP, MHA 3-31-25H-150-92,
• 21552, conf, QEP, MHA 2-31-25H-150-92
• 21553, conf, QEP, MHA 4-31-25H-150-92
• 21554, conf, QEP, MHA 1-31-30H-150-91
• 21556, conf, QEP, MHA 3-31-30H-150-91
• 21557, conf, QEP, MHA 1-31-36H-150-92
• 21558, conf, QEP, MHA 3-31-36H-150-92
• 21559, conf, QEP, MHA 5-31-25H-150-92
• 21560, conf, QEP, MHA 7-31-25H-150-92
• 21561, conf, QEP, MHA 1-31-25H-150-92

Also, note the great wells that XTO is reporting in this field.

Twelve (12) New Permits Today -- CLR Has a Nice Red River Well -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, November 16, 2011 --

Operators: QEP (4), Oasis (2), Baytex (2), Hess, OXY USA, BEXP, Slawson

Fields: Willow Creek, Heart Butte, Stony Creek, Tobacco Garden, Whiteaker, Sather Lake, and St Anthony.

Oasis has permits for a 2-well pad in Willow Creek; QEP has permits for a 4-well pad in Heart Butte; it appears Baytex has permits for a 2-well pad in Whiteaker.

Continental has a nice North Red River B well in Bowman County

• 17367, 213, CLR, Eric 11-24SH, Bowman County, North Red River B

Samson Resources has a very nice well in Divide County, right near the Canadian border; considering how far north this is, this is a nice well and very nice to see (remembering that KOG just acquired 20,000 net acres in Divide County):

• 20231, 758, Samson Resources, Ranchero 18-19-163-98H, Divide

And Whiting stays as active as ever, requesting five more wells for "tight hole" status.

This will probably be one of the last days I tag/label posts with "Multi-Well-Pads" because multi-well pads are becoming so commonplace now.

Eight (8) New Permits -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, November 9, 2011 --

Operators: BEXP (3), CLR (2), Zavanna (2), Petro-Hunt, Eternal Energy

Fields: Colgan, Wildrose, Stony Creek, Ragged Butte, Rattlesnake Point.

Petro-Hunt has a wildcat in Williams County.

BEXP has permits for a 3-well pad.

About half the wells coming off the confidential list were completed; the fracking backlog continues.

Eleven (11) New Permits -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, November 8, 2011 --

Operators: CLR (7), Zavanna (2), Crescent Point Energy, BEXP

Fields: St Demetrius, Dublin, Squires, Alkali Creek, Foreman Butte, Boxcar Butte, and Ranch Creek

CLR has permits for a 4-well Eco-Pad.

CLR reported two wells coming off "tight hole" status and both were fracked and completed. 

Eight (8) New Permits -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, November 7, 2011 --

Operators: Ward -Williston, MRO (2), CLR (2), Hess (3)

Fields: Little Deep Creek, Deep Water Creek Bay, North Tioga, Beaver Lodge, LIttle Knife.

CLR has a wildcat in Burke County.

MRO  has permits for a 2-well pad, as does Hess.

Finally, eleven wells released from "tight hole" status and six of them reported IPs, including:

• 19499, 1,264, Fidelity, TTT Ranch 33-28H, Mountrail, Bakken
• 20373, 2,812, BEXP, Alger State 16-21 1H, Mountrail, Bakken

And a well that was producing is now completed:

• 20068, 929, North Plains, Flatland 9-9H, McKenzie, Bakken

But, still, of the eleven wells coming off "tight hole" status, almost half were still waiting to be fracked/completed.

Seven (7) New Permits -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, November 1, 2011 --

Operators: Triangle USA (4), North Plains, Marathon, QEP

Fields: Truax, Deep Water Creek Bay, Bailey, and Rawson.

Triangle with permits for a 4-well pad in the Rawson -- Rawson is in a great location: just east of Alexander. The Triangle USA Gullickson Trust well will be about six miles southeast of Alexander and/or almost exactly four miles south of Rawson, ND. According to Wikipedia, the population of Rawson is ... six.

Demographics of Rawson, according to Wikipedia:

As of the census of 2000, there were 6 people, 2 households, and 2 families residing in the city. The population density was 24.5 people per square mile (9.3/km²). There were 7 housing units at an average density of 28.5 per square mile (10.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 100.00% white.

There were 2 households out of which 50.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, and 100.0% were married couples living together. The average household size was 3.00 and the average family size was 3.00.

What does this tell me? Either a writer has too much time on his/her hands, or a computer (most likely an android) is generating this information from databanks. No one in his/her right mind would note the percentages of a sample size of six. One would simply state the raw data. 

"There were 2 households out of which 50.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, and 100.0% were married couples living together. The average household size was 3.00 and the average family size was 3.00."  From this one can gather that the grandparents (with no children) live in town with their son or daughter (unlikely both) and their two grandchildren.

It gets better. I was telling this story to an individual who happened to be in the location that I am -- purely random. She said that her grandfather grew up in Ransom. "Isn't that by Alexander?" she asked. Incredible. I cannot make this stuff up. She said the town was once bigger. Her grandfather / grandmother had twelve children, and her grandmother was one of eleven children in her family. Yes, I would say that Ransom, at one time, was bigger.

Okay, back to the work at hand. Two wells came off the "tight hole" status as NDIC now refers to it:

• 20205, 859, CLR, Rennerfeldt 1-30H, Williams County (previously reported by the company)
• 20270, 732, Petro-Hunt, Skevsvold 150-101-4B-9-1H, McKenzie County

A producing well reported:

• 19440, 453, OXY USA, Sunshine 31-16H, Burke County, Bakken

 Three wells were released from "tight hole" status because their permits expired.

Thirteen (13) New Permits -- Freakin' Frackin' Backlog Not Stopping Permitting -- BR With 5 Very Nice Wells -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, October 21, 2011 --

Operators:  Enerplus (4), Whiting (2), Hess (2), Fram Operating (2), Marathon (2), Petro-Hunt

Fields: Squaw Creek, McGregory Buttes, Sanish, Hofflund, South Greene, and Deep Water Creek Bay.

Petro-Hunt with a wildcat in Williams;

Enerplus with permits for a 4-well pad in Squaw Creek; Hess has permits for a 2-well pad; and, MRO has permits for a 2-well pad.

Whiting has two more in its cash cow, the Sanish.

Two wells released from "tight hole" status; only one with an IP:

• 20034, 524, CLR, Debrecen 1-3H, Stark County -- I've been eager to see how CLR did in Stark County

But look at these producing wells that were completed, wow:

• 19287, 1,872, BR, Rising Sun 11-1TFH
• 19865, 1,848, BR, Ole Boy 24-11H
• 19884, 1,920, BR, Lincoln Hill 24-19H
• 20077, 1,432, BR, Zachery 14-10H
• 20081, 1,202, BR, Intervale 11-35H

More on these later.

Nine (9) New Permits -- 0/3 Wells Fracked "On Time" -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, October 6, 2011 --

Operators: BEXP (4), Oasis (3), Whiting, Petro-Hunt.

Fields: Bull Butte, Painted Woods, Cottonwood, Blue Buttes, Squires, Demores, Camp and a wildcat.

BEXP has permits for a 2-well pad. Petro-Hunt has the wildcat in Williams County. A lot of activity northwest of Williston.

Three wells released from confidential status, and not one of them completed.

Fourteen (14) New Permits -- 1 Out of 3 Wells Fracked "on Time" -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Wow, wow, wow -- second day in a row with 14 new permits issued --

 Daily activity report, October 5, 2011 --

Operators: Samson Resources (4), Denbury (2), Petro-Hunt (2), Baytex, Hess, Whiting, CLR, Zenergy, and Kodiak.

Fields: Bluffton, Ranch Coulee, Tobacco Garden, Juno, Four Bears, Musta, Bell, Upland, Siverston, Mondak, and one wildcat.

Samson Resources has the wildcat in Divide County.

Denbury and Petro-Hunt both have permits for a 2-well pad.

Of the three wells coming off the confidential list, only Whiting reported its well:

• 19558, 393, Robert Patten 44-3TFH, Mountrail

Bluffton is "new" to me. It's quite a ways north of Williston, adjacent to Blooming Prairie. Samson Resources already has one producing well in that field, the unremarkable:

• 16443, 60, Samson Resources, Wenstad 15-162-97H, Bluffton, Bakken, s1/07; t4/07; cumulative on 21,000 bbls after four years of production; this well has been designated a stripper well; it's intial spacing was 1280-acres but requested a change to 640-acre spacing (which I assumed was granted); it was fracked with sand and diesel, but from the file report I did not see number of stages

A lot has changed since 2007; it will be interesting to see if Samson Resources gets better wells this far north.

Fourteen (14) New Permits -- 1 Out of 7 Wells Fracked "On Time" -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, October 4, 2011 --

Operators: OXY USA (3), Triangle, Hess (2), Cornerstone, CLR (3), Oasis, Hunt, Crescent Point, North Plains,

Fields: Ellsworth, Little Knife, Murphy Creek, Flaxton, Hanson, Oliver, Camp, Willmen, Mountrail, Corinth, and Banks.

Crescent Energy has a wildcat in Williams County. CLR has a wildcat in Williams, also.

OXY USA has permits for a two-well pad.

Seven wells came off the confidential list today. Only one was completed, and not a surprise: Whiting. Whiting and BEXP seem to be about the only ones who are getting their wells fracked within the six-month window. I remember all the comments by CEOs at the 2Q11 earnings conference calls: we'll be caught up with fracking by November. I blogged at the time that the numbers didn't add up.

Eight new wells were reported to have reached total depth and are plugged or producing (in the Bakken: they are "all" producing): Oasis reported seven of those eight wells.

Oasis, by the way, has a very good reputation in Williams County. Nine permits were renewed, one of the larger numbers of renewals I've seen in awhile.

Thirteen (13) New Permits -- Hess With Several Nice Wells -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, October 3, 2011 --

 Operators: BEXP (4), CLR (2), MRO (2), Whiting (2), Petro Harvester, Triangle, Hess

 Fields: Alger, Kuroki, Dutch Henry Butte, Oliver, Bull Butte, Sanish, Reunion Bay, Ellswroth, Little Knife and a wildcat.

 MRO has two permits for two wells on one pad; BEXP, with three on one pad; CLR has the wildcat in Burke County, and Whiting, as usual, has a permit in its cash cow, the Sanish, and a permit in Stark County (Dutch Henry Butte).

Although 6 of 9 wells coming off the confidential list today were placed on DRL status, some completed wells had some nice IPs:

• 19076, 1,325, Hess, EN-Frandson-154-93-2116H-3, Mountrail
• 19078, 941, Hess, EN-Trinity-154-93-28-22H-2, Mountrail
• 19500, 1,006, Hess, Knudson 15-20H, Williams
• 19887, 714, Hess, AN-Dinwoodie-153-94-2833H-1, McKenzie -- Three Forks Sanish well
• 20366, 853, Hess, GO-Foss Trust-156-97-3526H-1, Williams

Six (6) New Permits -- Four Wells Off The Confidential List Today -- Only One Reporting IP -- Others Probably Waiting to Be Fracked -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

These wells came off the confidential list today; three of the four were not completed (not fracked):

• #19050, Whiting, Teddy 21-24TFH, Billings 
• #19805, 1461, XTO, FBIR Stephen 31X-19, Dunn
• #20366, Hess, GO-Foss Trust-156-97-3525H-1, Williams
• #21327, Hess, SC-Jean 157-99-0904H-1, Williams

There were six new permits:

Operators: MRO (3), Dakota-3 (WMB), G3 Operating, and Samson Resources.

Fields: Reunion Bay, Mandaree, Strandahl, Paulson.

MRO has two new permits in Strandahl field (on the same pad) and G3 Operating has a new permit in Strandahl field. Busy, busy, busy.