XOM Sets Extended Reach Record -- Not a Bakken Story, But Maybe Some Day

Link here.

Data points:

• XOM's subsidiary, Exxon Neftegas Limited, offshore far east Russia
• Sakhalin-1 Project, an international consortium
• Odoptu OP-11 well: total depth -- 40,502 feet (12,345 meters or 7.67 miles)
• World record for extended-reach drilling (ERD)
• Horizontal reach of 37,648 feet (11,475 or 7.13 miles): also a world record of horizontal reach
• Record-setting well completed in 60 days

Wow, a 7-mile horizontal lateral and almost 8 miles to total depth.

Marcellus Shale: Enough Gas to Meet Nation's Need for 20 Years

Link here.

What a great opportunity. Let's hope the bureaucrats and politicians don't blow it.

Brent Vs NYMEX: The Spread, Already A Record, Is Likely To Get Worse

Link here.

More than ever, the price of oil depends on where you look. Oil prices have sunk to a two-month low around $85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but ICE's Brent oil futures are soaring toward $100 a barrel.

The gap between the two prices--more than $12 as of Friday morning--is the biggest ever. NYMEX March futures were recently trading up 0.3% at $85.85 a barrel, while ICE March Brent trades up 0.6% at $97.97 a barrel. (Bakken is NYMEX.)

If it's due to a storage problem at Cushing, Oklahoma, the spread is likely to get worse.

Rigzone: 18-1 Price Spread (Oil - Natural Gas) -- Staggering -- North Dakota, USA

Look at that price spread between natural gas and oil predicted by the end of the year. 

U.S. energy producers are making a massive investment shift from natural-gas production to unconventional oil drilling as natural-gas prices stagnate, said Sylvia Barnes, managing director and head of banking at investment firm Madison Williams and Co.

The widening spread between oil and natural-gas prices is driving the investment shift, Barnes said. The oil-to-gas price ratio, which was traditionally 6-to-1, is expected to reach 18-to-1 by November, 2011.

Aren't we already there, 18-to-1? I must be tracking the wrong numbers; even the linked article says natural gas is stuck at $4 per million British thermal unit and oil is well past $72.

Eight (8) New Permits -- Seven (7) Great Whiting Wells -- North Dakota, USA

Producers: Hess (2), BEXP (2), Peak, Prima, OXY, Zavanna

Fields: Dollar Joe, Mandaree, Great Northern, Dimond, East Fork, Alger.

The two BEXP wells will be on one pad in Alger field, Mountrail.

Seven phenomenal Whiting (WLL) wells reported by NDIC:

• #18635 – Littlefield 21-12H, NENW 12-153N-91W, Mountrail, 2,591 
• #18658 – Mayer 12-3H, SWNW 3-152N-92W, Mountrail, 2,685
• #18743 – Miller 43-10H, NESE 10-153N-92W, Mountrail,  1,468 
• #18761 – Fladeland 43-9H, NESE 9-154N-92W, Mountrail, 3,027 
• #18876 – Rohde 14-6XH, LOT 7 6-153N-91W, Mountrail, 3,023
• #18926 – Hagey 12-13H, SWNE 13-154N-92W, Mountrail, 2,140
• #18928 – Ogden 12-3H, SWNE 3-154N-92W, Mountrail, 1,890