In the 11+ years I've been blogging, I've never read an article on a drought in eastern North Dakota, whereas the western third of the state seems to be in a perpetual and never-ending drought.
From a reader today:
From a reader:
I am inherently suspicious of this kind of project.
I really don't like taking water out of the southern-draining Missouri and rerouting it to drain into Hudson Bay
I
really, really don't like it because it gives the eastern part of the
state a reason to be interested in how much water we use to frack.
I
suspect that rather than prepare for a rare drought, what they really
want to do is pump flood water the other direction. Many more floods in
the Red River than droughts. Of course, it costs money to pump water
uphill.
Hoot Owl oil field is in the southwest part of the state, not the far southwest, but about a third of the way between South Dakota and the Canadian border just two miles east of the Montana border; it is about five miles northeast of Camel Hump oil field.
[Some of this is a "cut and paste" from an earlier posting but some folks may have missed it.]
Someone noted that Whiting was requesting to drill a horizontal targeting the Red River formation and wondering if this had been done before. The full story is presented at the sidebar at the right: scroll to "Formations" and then click on "Red River."
Hundreds (?) of horizontal wells (as many as 5 wells per section) have been drilled into the Red River, particularly in southwestern North Dakota. Eric Fox, earlier this year, wrote:
Although the Red River formation is relatively unknown to investors, the play was discovered in 1967 and first developed with vertical wells. In 1994, horizontal drilling was used to develop the Red River B play. While not many operators are active in the Red River formation, the play still accounted for approximately 10.5% of total oil production in North Dakota in 2010.
Specifically, case 16605:
Application of Whiting Oil & Gas Corp., to establish a 960-acre drilling or spacing unit consisting of all of Section 10 and the N/2 of Section 15, T.141N., R.105W., Golden Valley County, ND, for the purpose of drilling a horizontal well in the Red River Formation, and such other relief as is appropriate. --> Oil and gas permit #22956.
This area is pretty void of activity. The few wells/permitted locations are these (originally only about five wells were noted at time of original post; since then new permits have been posted):
19917, 273, Foundation Energy/Whiting, Maus 23-22, wildcat/Camel Hump, "directional" but on the GIS map seen as a vertical, t7/11; cum 141K 10/16; cum 196K 1/22;
19921, PA/IA/55, Foundatioin Energy/Whiting, Brookhart 11-14, Red River well, wildcat/Hoot Owl, t2/12; cum 11K 10/16; went inactive in 10/16;
20043, 200, Foundation Energy/Whiting, Peplinski 34-9, Red River well; wildcat/Hoot Owl, t11/11; cum 37K 10/16; cum 464K 1/22;
20969, A/IA, Foundation Energy/Whiting, Nistler 21-25H, wildcat/Delhi oil field (southeast of Hoot Owl); Three Forks, dry; now a salt water disposal well, that's why it's considered still active, 1/22;
22569, IA/272, Foundation Energy/Whiting, Stecker 23-3, Hoot Owl, a Red River well; t7/12; cum 53K 10/16; cum 76K 1/21;
22775, PA/295, Foundation Energy/Whiting, Ross 13-2, Hoot Owl, t8/12; cum 50K 10/16; a Red River well;
22956, PA, Foundation Energy/Whiting, Schaal 22-15H, Hoot Owl;
23847, 296, Foundation Energy/Whiting, Stecker 32-9, Hoot Owl;a Red River well, t2/13; cum 37K 10/16;
23936, PA, Foundation Energy/Whiting, Faiman 32-14; Hoot Owl;
CLR's Red River Units comprise a portion of the Cedar Hills field, listed by the Energy Information Administration in 2008 as the 7th largest onshore, lower 48 field in the United States, ranked by liquid proved reserves. The Cedar Hills field is in the far southwestern part of North Dakota, far northwestern corner of South Dakota, and west central Montana along the border abutting North and South Dakota.
How important are the Red River units to CLR?
CLR production from the Red River units accounted for 38% of Continental's production in 4Q09.
The Red River units accounted for 21% of CLR's year-end 2009 proved reserved.
2015
31062, conf, Denbury, CHSU ML 41-02NH 05,
30755, conf, Denbury, CHSU ML 41-36NH 15,
30473, PNC, Denbury, CHSU 31-36NH 15, South Red River B,
2014 (list is complete)
30124, PNC, Denbury, CHSU 41-36SH 15, Red River B,
30123, PNC, Denbury, CHSU 41-36NH 15, Red River B,
30073, PNC, Denbury, CHSU 31-36SH 15, South Red River B,
30026, conf, Denbury,
30017, PNC, Denbury, CHSU 44-36NH 15, South Red River B,
29883, conf, Denbury, CHSU 42-24SH 15, producing,
29666, conf, Denbury, CHSU 44-23NH 15, producing,
29460, conf, Denbury, CHSU 44-26SH 15,
29459, conf, Denbury, CHSU 44-26NH 15,
29410, conf, Denbury, CHSU 11-36NH 15,
29395, conf, Denbury, CHSU 11-36SH 15,
28264, 5, Denbury, CHSU 24-23NH 15, South Red River B, t8/14; cum 7K 2/15;
28128, 51, Denbury, CHSU 31-27NH 15, South Red River B, t8/14; cum 17K 2/15;
28011, SI/drl, Denbury, CHSU 11-27 15,
27905, conf, Denbury, CHSU 13-9NH 05,
27631, 90, Denbury, CHSU 41-35SHR 15, Red River B, t6/14; cum 8K 8/14;
2013
27053, 171, Denbury, CHSU 14B-26NH 15, South Red River B, short lateral, 20 days of drilling; peak gas at 1,231 units; gas averaged 10 to 500 units; t4/14; cum 24K 8/14;
27243, 95, Denbury, CHSU 11-35NH 15, Red River B, t4/14; cum 11K 8/14;
27121, 201, CLR, Winchester 43-8SH, Red River B, t3/14; cum 45K 8/14;
25896, 116, Denbury, CHSU 31B-27SHR 15, Red River B, t10/13; cum 63K 8/14;
25895, 76, Denbury, CHSU 14B-16NH 15, South Red River B, t12/13; cum 21K 8/14;
25083, 193, CLR, Kurtz 21-28SH, North Red River B, t5/13; cum 80K 8/14;
2012
23846,conf, CLR, Bison 41-23H,
23574, A, CLR, Eric 22-24Sh, Red River B, no production data;
22702, PNC, Silver Oak Energy LLC, Sonsalla 1-27H, Red River B,
2011
20950, 55, Silver Oak Energy LLC, Rankin 1-35H, Red River B, t2/12; cum 5K 8/14;
20771, loc, CLR, Pronghorn 42-23H, Red River B,
20769, loc, CLR, Pronghorn 42-23H, Red River B1
Original Post
With all the news coming out of the Bakken and out of CLR in the past several days, I kept running across the "Cedar Hills oil field."
I never followed that field very closely; by the time I started blogging, oil activity had started to move from the Red River formations to the Bakken formations in and around the reservation. But for those interested, here's a nice flashback to 2007 and a look at the early development of not only Cedar Hills but also the Bakken by Continental Resources.
At that time, the "Red River formations" accounted for 54% of CLR's production in the Rocky Mountain region; these units were in the Cedar Hills Anticline in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. In 2004, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) listed this field as the 23rd largest field in the United States. In North Dakota, CLR's activity in the Cedar Hills field is in Bowman County, along the South Dakota and Montana border, in the very southwest corner of the state.
Most of the horizontals in the Cedar Hills field are a bit longer than a typical short lateral, and there are some areas with as many as eleven (11) laterals or parts of laterals running through a section (28-131-106). This helps explain why the Red River formations account for more than 10 percent of total oil production coming out of North Dakota since oil was first discovered in North Dakota in 1951.
It should be noted that drilling into the Red River is declining. From the Director's Cut: "Bowman County Red River production is declining again as there are now just 2 wells drilling."
Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want To Get Over You), Waylon Jennings
