Seven (7) New Permits To Start Off the Year -- North Dakota, USA

Producers: Murex (2), Petro-Hunt (2), Samson Resources, Newfield, and XTO.

Fields: Fertile Valley, West Bank, West Capa, Grover, and three wildcats (two in Dunn County, one in Divide County).

The two Petro-Hunt wells will be on the same pad inside the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. 

Several wells came off the confidential list and I've reported them elsewhere.

I have changed something else this year also. For the time being I don't plan to update (or add) new entries to "wells with large IPs." I haven't decided whether I will continue, start on a new page, or limit it to IPs greater than 2,000, something we see very rarely.

Moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico -- Not a Bakken Story

Mainstream media confirms: the moratorium continues.

The slowdown also has long-term implications for U.S. oil production. The Energy Information Administration, the research arm of the Department of Energy, last month predicted that domestic offshore oil production will fall 13% this year from 2010 due to the moratorium and the slow return to drilling; a year ago, the agency predicted offshore production would rise 6% in 2011. The difference: a loss of about 220,000 barrels of oil a day

.
North Dakota produces about 340,000 bbls/day.

Meanwhile, "we" head for $100 oil.

Update on the Stroh Wells -- Fayette Field -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Update

August 4, 2011: permits for both wells below are now PNC: permits now canceled. The current operator is listed as Burlington Resources. The original operator was Anschutz.

• 18503: PNC, BR, Cecilia Stroh 1-18-19H-143-96, Dunn, Fayette oil field
• 18463: PNC, BR, Elizabeth Stroh 1-7-6H-143-96, Dunn, Cabernet oil field

I do not know why the permits were canceled. In 2010, Anschutz sold most of its property to OXY USA. Within the past few days there was a press release that said Anschutz sold its remaining Bakken acreage, but the name of the buyer was not released.
I am not sure how Burlington Resources got into the mix and how it became the current operator. Anschutz sold most of its property to OXY USA and the rest of it to an unidentified Canadian company (at least that's what I seem to remember). It is interesting that BR has a well right next to your land. My hunch is that multiple folks had interests in this land (BR, Anschutz, others).


When Anschutz sold out, BR grabbed the opportunity to get a permit there (again a hunch), but when
the dust settled, for whatever reason, the permits were canceled.

This area is so good, I am sure that these wells will be drilled. It's possible BR is moving the pad to a new site, and thus they canceled the permits, to request new ones. I doubt that. More likely it has something to do with the recent announcement that Anschutz sold the last of its assets to a private Canadian oil company.

My hunch is that the Canadian company will drill those wells.

On another note, the Raphael Stroh well discussed before has now produced more than 85,000 bbls of oil (spud 3/10; tested 11/10; 85,000 bbls by 6/11) -- pretty impressive. 

Original Post

A reader sent in the following information earlier today:

Anschutz well, file #18423, Raphael Stroh 1-13-24H-143-97 as of the week of Dec 26, 2010 the well has produced approximately 52,000 bbls of oil. The current flow rate is approximately 597 bbls oil per day. The well was fractured about Nov 11, 2010 with an initial production rate of approximately 2409 bbls oil per day.

The tentative drilling date for the dual pad Elizabeth and Cecilia Stroh well is July of 2011. Always subject to change.
18503: BR, Cecilia Stroh 1-18-19H-143-96, Dunn, Fayette oil field
18463: BR, Elizabeth Stroh 1-7-6H-143-96, Dunn, Cabernet oil field

For most on the Stroh wells, click here. 

The Stroh wells are in the Fayette field which has turned out to be a very nice field.

Fallout From the "Lost Decade" -- China Figures It Out -- US Says "No Way"

Fallout (pun intended) from the "Lost Decade":

China figures it out.

Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing fuel from nuclear power plants, potentially boosting the supplies of carbon-free electricity to keep the country's economy booming.

The breakthrough will extend by many times the amount of power that can be generated from China's nuclear plants as fissile and fertile materials are recovered to be new fuel.

US scrapped the program under ObamaNation.

U.S. commercial reprocessing of plutonium was halted by then-President Jimmy Carter because of nuclear proliferation worries. Then-President George W. Bush proposed a resumption, but the National Research Council found it not economically justifiable. President Barack Obama scrapped the Bush effort.

So, "we" will keep burning coal and chastising China for using "clean" technology.

EOG Hits a DRY Hole -- Not a Bakken -- North Dakota, USA

January 3, 2010: a DRY well that targeted the Spearfish; the Skipjack 1-30H. This well was just a few miles south of all the other miserable Spearfish wells just across the border from Canada. Why were "they" successful in the Canadian Spearfish but couldn't do it in North Dakota?