A Nice Story On Kathy Neset

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

Kathy Neset may be the only oilfield geologist who uses a bendable drinking straw as a key tool for her job.

The Tioga woman uses the straw to educate people about horizontal drilling, one of the technologies that’s unlocked the Bakken and made North Dakota the second-highest oil-producing state.

With the whole world interested in knowing more about what’s happening in North Dakota, Neset is in high demand to inform visiting federal officials and local residents about the state’s geology and the technology making the boom possible.

“I love sharing the story of this Bakken and then letting people make up their minds as to whether they think this is a good thing for North Dakota and for America,” said Neset, president of Neset Consulting Service.

Neset, a New Jersey native and Brown University graduate, moved to North Dakota in 1979 to work as a wellsite geologist.

I think there was more to the story why she moved to North Dakota. The North Dakota oil patch was not exactly the center of the oil universe in 1979.

Women Cashing In On Oil Service Support In The Bakken

Bloomberg is reporting:

While men dominate the manual-labor jobs on the rigs, women are exercising entrepreneurial zeal in opening services ranging from oil well geology to occupational testing to day care and medical clinics in western North Dakota. Local authorities and company executives say the women -- and the businesses they’re creating -- are needed to sustain the economic boost.

“There are great opportunities for women,” Kathy Neset, 57, the president of Neset Consulting Service Inc., said in an interview. “Whatever skill you have, we need it in western North Dakota.”

Neset started the company, which provides geological services to oil companies, in 1980 with her husband in Tioga, 580 miles northwest of Minneapolis and 95 miles from Watford City. It now employs 180 people. 

The photograph at the linked site is worth the visit.

Great Human Interest Story on Geologist Kathleen Neset -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

A big "thank you" to Gary for sending me the link.

Link here to KX News (unfortunately this link won't be here long).

Kathleen Neset is the president of Neset Consulting Service, based in the heart of oil country: Tioga. She is the keynote speaker at the Bismarck/Mandan Development Association's annual meeting.

"We provide crews to the geo-steering operation while the wells are drilling, we help the oil companies target and stay in the Bakken." says Neset.

A formation that she considers one of the best situations in the nation.

"I think it's important we North Dakotans understand just how special the Bakken is, our surface aquifers are in the top 2000 feet of the drilling process and they're drilled with fresh water, then we seal them off with casing and cement, totally seal that off from fracking that will happen down in the Bakken formation at 10,000 feet of true vertical depth, that puts about 8000 feet of overburdened rock between fracking and aquifers." says Neset.

She cares as a geologist, and a farmer.

 "I'm a farmer, I farm northeast of Tioga, I rely on rural water on a well, so I have to take care of our surface aquifers just as much as the next North Dakotan does." says Neset.

That's a lot of cement.

Between First and Second Phase of Drilling Out the Bakken -- Kathy Neset -- 15,000 Workers in Crew Camps Across the Bakken -- Man Camps -- Bakken Rocks CookFest -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Update

Kathy Neset spoke at the Denver Bakken conference this past week, reiterating that fracking was safe. This is additional data point for Kathy Neset:

Kathy Neset has good reason to be excited about the Bakken. The geologist moved to North Dakota in 1979 and rode the boom cycle of the 1980s, building a geology and engineering company in Tioga called Neset Consulting Service. But her timing in moving here from New Jersey also meant she was part of the bust that followed.

But her company survived and now thrives - with one hundred employees and business all over the region. Her mission at the Bakken Summit was to tell these industry leaders that the fracking process used in the Bakken is completely safe for water quality in the region. It's a message she says is critical to deliver right now because of charges in the northeastern US that fracking has contaminated water supplies. She points out that the key difference is how deep the Bakken oil is - some ten thousand feet - more than five times the depth of any aquifers, meaning the facking process happens well below the water supply. Neset says the fracking process is indicative of the takeover of technology in the oil business right now.

Original Post

It's too bad the link to the McKenzie County Farmer will likely be broken over the next few months or so.

The story included a wonderful photograph of Kathy Neset, geologist and owner of Neset Consulting.
I have never met her, but I first blogged about her quite some time ago, at least back as far as the November 8, 2010. If you go to that site, I can't guarantee links from there are still intact; regional links tend to break quickly.

Recently Ms Neset spoke to attendees of the annual Bakken Rocks CookFest.

Kathy Neset, geologist and owner of Neset Consulting, has identified four phases to drilling and oil recovery. Right now, Kathy states, we are between phase one and phase two.

Kathy also states that two years ago, with the technology present then, researchers projected that the Bakken had four billion barrels of recoverable oil. Today, with drilling technology improving and with new formations being identified, oil industry experts predict there is even more oil that can be recovered than was initially estimated.

Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council brought in representatives from across the region to speak on safety, infrastructure, technology.

Ness also touched on housing, and stressed the importance of the ‘crew camps,’ stating that 15,000 workers are currently housed in crew camps all over the Bakken.

First Annual Bakken Convention a Success According to Sources -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.

I wish I could have heard the keynote speech by Kathleen Neset.

Wednesday's keynote speaker was Kathleen Neset of Neset Consulting.

From the Williston Herald:

Investors from around the country gathered in Minot last week to learn about the opportunities available in the Williston Basin.

The first annual Bakken Investor Conference was held at the Minot Sleep Inn and Suites.

Dawa Solutions Group President Jeff Zarling said more than 100 people attended the three-day event.

"The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, from participating companies to sponsors to attendees. I think we exceeded all expectations," Zarling said.

Human Interest Story: Kathleen Neset and Neset Consulting Services

There is a very nice human interest story over at PrairieBusiness about a consulting geologist firm started by Kathleen Neset about thirty years ago. She started out alone, and now has sixty (60) crews working for her throughout the Bakken. A crew consists of a mudlogger and a geologist who handle 24 hour shifts. The geologist operates a 12-hour day shift and the muddlogger continues the duties during the evening.

Continued Confusion: Bakken and Three Forks Sanish -- the Definitive Answer -- February 17, 2010

Summary

The "Bakken Pool" is an administrative term that includes the Bakken formation and the Three Forks Sanish formation.

The NDIC website shows the accumulated totals of oil production from the "Bakken" and the "Bakken/TFS."  I assume the Bakken is limited to the Bakken formation in the "Bakken Pool"; and, the "Bakken/TFS" is limited to the TFS formation in the "Bakken Pool."

Geo News, July, 2010: the Bakken potential.

The Original Post

I have posted this several times: there is confusion over "Bakken" vs "Three Forks Sanish." This is the best answer I have seen: the NDIC and the USGS consider the oil coming from the "Bakken" and the "Three Forks Sanish" to be coming from the "Bakken Pool." That's why on the daily activity report, the pool is always listed as "Bakken" when the well targets the Bakken formation or the TFS formation. [Update, October 14, 2010: click here to see an exception. Is this new, evolving, or did I miss similar wells earlier?]

And that's the key: "formation." The Bakken formation is composed of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Bakken members/units, all separate strata. Likewise, the Upper TFS and the Lower TFS are separate strata.

Formations, members/units, and strata are all geologic terms.

On the other hand, "Bakken Pool" is an administrative term. The USGS and the NDIC prefer to lump these five (5) formations together as one pool (see below -- it makes sense).

The five formations can be very, very thin in some areas, and it is very possible a) the geologist is not 100% sure which formation the tip of the drill is in; b) a long lateral may pierce more than one formation; and/or, c) the administrative paperwork to date may not always be "perfect," and it might be difficult, expensive, and even unnecessary to sort out exactly what formation the lateral is in, especially when the formations may communicate in some localities.

The NDIC defines the Bakken Pool as 50 feet above the upper Bakken limit and 50 feet below the lower Bakken formation line. One needs to see the "completion report" to see which formation(s) was (were) targeted. Most of the reports linked at my site do not include the completion report, but the report that is provided after the well comes off the confidential list. [Update, July 6, 2013: for the past year, operators have been requesting, and NDIC has been granting alterations to the definition of the stratigraphic limits of the Bakken/Three Forks.]

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The Geology

The stratigraphic nomenclature varies, for example:

Southeastern Saskatchewan

Periods: Mississippian and Devonian

Groups: Three Forks and Saskatchewan

Formations: Bakken, Big Valley, Torquay (the Three Forks group)

Formation: Birdbear (the Saskatchewan group)

North Dakota

Periods: Mississippian and Devonian

Groups: "Bakken Pool" and Jefferson

Formations: Bakken and Three Forks (the "Bakken Pool" group)

Formation: Birdbear (the only formation in the Jefferson group)

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Of course, the next question that arises is this: at the NDIC website, cumulative oil production is broken down by "formation" on one of the pages. The NDIC has broken out two "formations" as 1) the Bakken; and 2) the Bakken/TFS.  It appears for North Dakota this is logical: as noted above, the "Bakken Pool" group is composed of the Bakken formation and the Three Forks Formation. But it is confusing that they label it as the "Bakken/TFS." They don't do that with other formations, such as the Red River which is part of the Madison Group. 

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Here's another recent discussion regarding this issue; the discussion begins well down into the thread once you get there. 

I have recently posted that EOG may be planning to drill three wells from one pad (in the Parshall), the wells targeting, respectively, the Middle Bakken, the Upper Three Forks Sanish, and the Lower Three Forks Sanish.

Interestingly enough, the 1990 boom in North Dakota targeted the Upper Bakken.

So, there you have it. Within the "Bakken," it sounds like there could be five formations: Upper, Middle, and Lower Bakken; and, the Upper and Lower Three Forks Sanish (more correctly referred to as unit 1- 6).

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Note: one of the pioneers in the Bakken, Marathon Oil (MRO), considers the "Bakken" to be composed of five distinct units: the Lodgepole; the upper, middle and lower Bakken; and, the Three Forks (Sanish).

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On another note, the Spearfish/Madison Pool lies directly above the Bakken Pool. The Spearfish/Madison Pool is much thicker, extending from the shallower Spearfish, all the way down to the Madison, which lies directly above the Bakken formations. Back in 2006, Julie LeFever published an article which included data to suggest that the Madison Pool does not "leak" oil into the underlying Bakken. [October 31, 2017: that link is now broken. This PDF discusses the Bakken as "we" knew it back in 2005. The html is at this link.]

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According to a research paper by Roy Neset, Jr., Department of Geosciences, Fall, 2009, the source rocks for the middle Bakken member are the upper Bakken shale and the lower Bakken Shale; the source rock for the Three Forks Sanish member is the lower Bakken shale. Neset provides data to suggest that the lower Lodgepole Formation, which overlies the upper Bakken shale source rock, could be an economically viable oil-producing zone. An abbreviated synopsis of that research can be found here.