Photos: Taking Down a Big Rig -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

I need to do a better job of noting information about the photos of wells I take. This is a photo of Nabors rig 476.

Based on minimal data provided by NDIC (the well is on confidential status), I believe the well is a SM Energy well, permit 20485, Barnes 2-2H, in the Indian Hill oil field, southwest of Williston, just across the Missouri River. According to NDIC, the start date for this well was May 6, 2011, and because it has a start date and not "MIRU" -- moving in, rigging up -- I assume the well has been drilled. I could be wrong.

Regardless, it's a nice picture of a big rig in the process of coming down or going up. According to the NDIC, this rig is scheduled to move to the "Lyseth" well next. There is no "Lyseth" well, but there are two "Leiseth" wells next to each other in Tobacco Garden, also south of the river, and SM permits. Both of these are on confidential status, so I don't know if these are the "Lyseth" wells, but it all seems to fit.

Photos of Bison in North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park -- North Dakota, USA

I took some time off today from looking at oil wells to visit the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, south of Watford City.

Again, you can click on a photo, it will open in another window and you can make it bigger -- big enough to read the signs. No copyright on the photos.

Brad Olson 9-16 2H and Brad Olson 9-16 3H, Northwest of Williston -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Update

I missed this. A big thank you to someone for calling me on this and correcting me. (I have no hidden agendas; my errors are generally due to sloppiness, not to try to fool anyone. Hopefully I learn from my mistakes.)

This pad, in fact, has two wells on it, not one as I said in the original post -- the Brad Olson 9-16 2H and the Brad Olson 9-16 3H. The eighteen tanks are still impressive, but it appears that four of them are for salt water, leaving an average of seven tanks per well.  Again, a big thank you to whomever set me straight on this.

Original Post

These photos were taken of a well (see comment below: my mistake -- two wells on this pad) just a few miles northwest of Williston.

I joke with those who go out with me to look at wells that one can always identify a BEXP well. This photo is worth a thousand words.

This is the Brad Olson 9-16 3H well. The permit number is 19085. It was spud August 16, 2010; completed and tested on April 24, 2011. Production data is not yet available, but its IP was 2,172. The status of this well is listed as flowing.

Update, not in the original posting; see comment below: the second well is the Brad Olson 9-16 2H well. The permit is 19086. It was spud July 13, 2010; completed and tested on November 2, 2010. Its IP was 2,472. Through March, 2011, this well has produced 47,302 bbls of oil; in March, 2011, it produced 3,627 bbls over 14 days of production. The well is still listed as "flowing" by the NDIC.  There is a pumper on the pad so perhaps the paperwork has not caught up with the picture.

Three additional photos of this well pad:

Water Pipeline Being Laid South Of Williston -- June 4, 2011 -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Update

Someone has commented that this is probably a water pipeline; that would make more sense.  A big "thank you" to the individual correcting me on this. 

Original Post

It's impossible to imagine how much activity there will be in the Williston Basin over the next few years. But when I look at all the pipeline being laid, it confirms, at least to me, that the landscape is going to be dotted with at least two wells on every section in the marginal Bakken / Three Forks areas, and as many as eight wells in every 1280-acre spacing unit in the good areas, maybe more. And, of course, there are still the legacy Red River and Madison wells.

These are photos of pipeline currently being laid on the west side of US Highway 2 just south of Williston and north of Enbridge's Alexander Storage and Pipeline Gathering Station.

This is only a small sample of all the pipeline that is being laid in "the Bakken." And these are huge pipes; 24 - to 30-inch diameter, I assume.

Missouri River South of Williston Flooding and Backing Up of Lake Sakakawea -- June 4, 2011

These photos were taken on June 4, 2011, just south of the Missouri River bridge south of Williston, North Dakota.

Normally this is farmland, mostly for hay. We used to pick plums on the west side of US Highway 2 in this area.

Now it looks like the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil.