Continental Resources Announces Plans to Triple Production by 2017

Press release here.

• CLR projects producing 36 million boe for calendar year 2012 --> almost 100,00 boepd
• CLR plans to grow that production to 108 million boe by 2017 --> almost 300,000 boepd
• CLR plans to triple proved reserves from year-end 2011 to year-end 2017
• CLR's estimated proved reserves at mid-2012: 610 million boe

For 2013, CLR plans:

• production growth of 30 to 35 percent yoy
• CAPEX: $3.4 billion
• 738 gross wells; 300 net wells

CLR three areas:

• Williston Basin Bakken, North Dakota
• Williston Basin Bakken, Montana
• Anadarko Woodford, Oklahoma (315,675 net leased acres)

Just how big is 300,000 boepd by 2017?

For comparison, XOM is pushing for 1 million boepd by 2016. There's a huge delta between 1 million and 300,000 but they're (almost) in the same ballpark. Depends, I suppose, on big your ballpark is. My ballpark is pretty big. 

National Grasslands, Wilderness Areas, Roadatoriums, and Permitoriums

From wiki:

National Grasslands are authorized by Title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act. 

For administrative purposes, they are essentially identical to U.S. National Forests, except that grasslands are areas primarily consisting of prairie.

Like National Forests, National Grasslands may be open for hunting, grazing, mineral extraction, recreation and other uses. Various National Grasslands are typically administered in conjunction with nearby National Forests.

All but three National Grasslands are on or at the edge of the Great Plains. Those three are in southeastern Idaho, northeastern California, and central Oregon.

The three National Grasslands in North Dakota, together with one in northwestern South Dakota, are administered jointly as the Dakota Prairie Grasslands. National Grasslands are generally much smaller than National Forests.

From wiki, a wilderness area:

A wilderness area is a region where the land is in a natural state; where impacts from human activities are minimal—that is, as a wilderness. It might also be called a wild or natural area. Especially in wealthier, industrialized nations, it has a specific legal meaning as well: as land where development is prohibited by law. Many nations have designated Wilderness Areas, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States.

From the Dickinson Press/InsideClimate News:

A legal battle is intensifying to decide if roads can be built in areas of the Little Missouri National Grasslands now managed as roadless and eligible to be protected as wilderness. 

The dispute started this summer when four North Dakota counties sued the federal government, asserting they have the legal right to build roads along section lines.

My understanding is that we have a "roadatorium" now in that area of North Dakota, which is just one step away from a permitorium on development if the area is declared a wilderness area.

Confidential Wells Coming Off Confidential List; Petro-Hunt With a Straw Into the Tyler; BEXP With A Nice Well; Whiting With a Very Nice Pronghorn Well; OXY USA With A Good Well;

RBN Energy with a nice story on crude-by-rail, part II. 
RBN Energy with a look at the Jones Act: maritime act raising the cost of coastal shipping. 

Bakken Operations

Active rigs in North Dakota: 190, steady.

The following wells came off the confidential list over the long weekend and on Tuesday; Saturday, Sunday, and Monday reported below; Tuesday tomorrow.

21308, drl, KOG, Koala 14-32-29-3H, Banks,
22060, 621, Whiting, Zalesky 31-18PH, North Creek, t/4/12; cum 24K 8/12;
22104, 541, CLR, Morison 1-14H, Bully, t7/12; cum 12K 8/12;
22540, 291, CLR, Jarlsberg 1-25H, Wildrose, t7/12; cum 7K 8/12;
22597, drl, Gadeco, Alexander 25-36H, Epping,
22623, drl, BEXP, Heen 26-35 3TFH, Todd,
20580, 540, OXY USA, Terry Dvorak 1-15-22H-142-95, Murphy Creek, t4/12; cum 12K 8/12;
22081, drl, BEXP, Heen 26-35 2H, Todd,
22166, drl, Samson Resources, Outback 25-36-162-97H, Bluffton,
22167, 1,545, Whiting, Frank 44-7PH, Bell, t4/12; cum 85K 8/12;
22512, drl, BEXP, Lonnie 15-22 2TFH, Ragged Butte,
22545, drl, G3 Operating, J Haugen 1-9-4H, Climax,
21148, 809, CLR, Pasadena 1-11H, Banks, t7/12; cum 38K 8/12;
22291, 2,650, BEXP, Arvid Anderson 14-11 3H, Alger, t9/12; cum --
21981, drl, CLR, Alpha 1-14H, Camp,
22410, drl, Slawson, Ann Nelson [Federal] 3-31-30H, Ross,
22564, 80, Petro-Hunt, Wollan 152-96-27B-1-3, Clear Creek, a Minnelusa well;  t5/12; cum 7K 8/12;
22569, 272, Whiting, Stecker 23-3, Hoot Owl, a Red River well; t7/12; cum 11K 8/12;
20424, 1,156, XTO, FBIR Grinnell 41X-1C, Heart Butte, t7/12; cum 6K 8/12;
21995, drl, Abraxas, Ravin 26-35-3H, North Fork,

COMMENT: Petro-Hunt's Minnelusa Wollan well (from the file report): a vertical well intended to test sand in the lower portion of the Tyler formation that appears to be oil on water. It was spudded April 9, 2012, and reached total depth of 7,857 feet on April 18, 2012." Nine days. Tyler formation.

It looks like the Tyler was about 80 feet thick at this location: top Tyler target - 7,597 feet; base Tyler target - 7,607 feet; base Tyler Sand target - 7,681 feet.

This well was not stimulated (not fracked).

[For archival purposes: Big Snowy/Otter - 7,697 feet, the top of the Lodgepole.]

The Frank 44-7PH well to date:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
8-2012	14200	15270
7-2012	14893	16082
6-2012	15319	18378
5-2012	23160	24653
4-2012	17691	17412

The Pasadena 1-11H well to date:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
8-2012	12597	15774
7-2012	20515	17865
6-2012	4135	1456

Petro-Hunt's Minnelusa Wollan well:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
MINNELUSA	8-2012	31	1502	1322	232	18251	0	18034
MINNELUSA	7-2012	31	1855	2000	335	19545	0	19328
MINNELUSA	6-2012	30	2158	2084	75	17299	0	17088
MINNELUSA	5-2012	18	1639	1186	49	8636	0	8510

Fifteen (15) new permits:

• Operators: Petro-Hunt (9), KOG (3), Fidelity (2), Whiting
• Fields: Charlson (McKenzie), Sanish (Mountrail), Clear Creek (McKenzie), Moccasin Creek (Dunn)

Comments: I'm watching to see if any new permitting by OXY and/or Newfield; none today

The Benches

For those who are new to the site and coming across the phrase, "the lower benches" for the first time: here is a short blurb posted earlier this year. [The link is broken; I will try to find the link.]

Continental Resources provides great graphics of the Three Forks benches. Go to the Continental Resources website; click on the "For Investors" tab at the top of the page; then "Events and Presentations" tab at the top right; and click on any presentation you want. Slides 13 and 14 of the August corporate presentation shows the "benches."

In addition, there is a stand-alone post on CLR's Charlotte wells testing the hypothesis that there are four producing benches in the Three Forks formation.

Aerial Photos of the New Bypass North of Williston

Updates

Later, 11:38 pm: see comments below. The company working on designing this project is SRF, headquartered out of Minneapolis, MN, with regional offices in Fargo and Bismarck. Click here for link to their website. It appears it is easy to contact their principals by e-mail if interested in additional information. A huge "thank you" for the reader who took the time to send in this information.

Original Post

Readers can help us out on this one.

A reader was kind enough to send some incredible aerial photos of what I think is the "new" bypass road north of Williston as it comes to/crosses "2 & 85" about five miles north of Williston.

It's definitely not the 13-mile corner north of Williston (unless they completely eliminated the arc).

I don't think it's the corner at 60 Avenue NW because 60th Avenue NW is completely straight, and in the bottom-most photo one can see the county highway has a distinctive curve about a mile in the distance. It has to be 57th Street Northwest (my hunch is County Highway 6 is now 57th Street Northwest).

But about five miles north of Williston is County Highway 6, which has that distinctive curve about a mile east of "2 & 85."

So, I think this "brand new" intersection is about five miles north of Williston, where County Highway 6 intersects with "2 & 85." If so, I think the well at the intersection is:

• 22414, conf, Zenergy, Tufto 13-24H, Cow Creek,

I will be glad to let readers correct me.

Having said all that: look at the amount of asphalt used at the intersections: I can only imagine the engineering that was done to make this intersection stand up to all the truck traffic it's going to see.

Then, look at all the truck traffic.

And the crew camps.

Those who grew up in Williston, but who have long since left, will hardly recognize these amazing changes.

A huge thank you to the reader for sending these photos to be shared.

See comment below: the middle photo captures the location and early work on Love's Truck Stop.

If I am correct that this is County Highway 6 crossing "2 & 85" north of Williston: the four-lane divided highway is US Highway 2 and 85 running north - south from Williston, north of Williston about five miles on the way to Minot. The county highway is running west - east. In the bottom-most photo one is looking east off into the direction and the distinctive curve to the south about a mile in the distance.

One can see a new oil well / pad off to the right, in the southeast corner of the intersection.

The "13-mile corner" is about another seven or eight miles to the north (to the left) of the bottom-most photo.

Truckers must really appreciate this new bypass.