Twelve (12) New Permits; HRC With Two Huge Wells; Of Seven Bakken Wells Coming Off Confidential Tuesday, Six Will Be Producing -- June 8, 2015

For those who may have missed it, the EPA says fracking has no widespread effect on drinking water. None. Nada. Nil. Zilch. 

It's not often I see twelve (12) new permits on a Monday, even during the "better" times. But, be that as it may, twelve (12) new permits today. See below.

Hard-core Bakken buffs may enjoy this site. I'm not sure when the linked site was posted but the writer says it was based on NDIC data dated March, 2015, which is pretty current. I scrolled through it, but it looks like a post that might be worthy of another look.

Active rigs:

	6/8/2015	06/08/2014	06/08/2013	06/08/2012	06/08/2011
Active Rigs	81	194	189	214	169

Twelve (12) new permits:

• Operators: Statoil (7), Whiting (3), SM Energy (2)
• Fields: Banks (McKenzie), Truax (Williams), Ambrose (Divide)
• Comments: the seven Statoil permits are for wells on the same pad; see below

Along with several wells reporting IPs today from the confidential list, six (6) producing wells were completed, putting a dent in the fracklog:

• 24150, 2,760, HRC, Fort Berthold 148-94-27C-22-3H, McGregory Buttes, t5/15; no production data,
• 24739, 2,397, HRC, Fort Berthold 152-94-15B-22-5H, a Sanish well, Antelope, t10/13; cum 225K 4/15; not sure why this well was on the list of producing wells completed;
• 27549, 848, CLR, Lansing 4-25AH1, Banks, t5/15; cum 2K 4/15; choked way back;
• 29015, 1,782, XTO, Johnson Federal 11X-5A, Siverston, t5/15; cum --
• 29016, 1,558, XTO, Johnson Federal 11X-5E, Siverston, t5/15; cum --
• 30250, 257, Whiting, Jones 11-8XH, Sanish, t5/15; cum 1K 4/15; choked way back

Wells coming off the confidential list Tuesday:

• 21607, 1,122, Hunt, Halliday 2-19-18H, Werner, 25 stages, 2.7 million lbs, original application date: 9/28/2011;  t3/15; cum 29K 4/15; 
• 26782, 53, OXY USA, Shuck 3-33-28H-144-97, Little Knife, t12/14; cum 35K 4/15;
• 27854, 1,433, EOG, Parshall 37-0806H, Parshall, ICO (1920), 50 stages, 12 million lbs,, t12/14; cum 147K 4/15;
• 27859, 823, EOG, Parshall 57-0806H, Parshall, ICO (1920), 55 stages; 18.4 million lbs,  t12/14; cum 159K 4/15; 
• 28244, 823, Hess, EN-Madisyn-154-94-0706H-3, Alkali Creek, t41/5; cum 25K 4/15;
• 29969, drl/NC, XTO, Odegaard State 31X-16BXC, Midway, no production data,
• 30014, 480, CLR, Foraker 1-25H, Burg, t3/15; cum 12K 4/15;

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Permits for the proposed 7-well Statoil pad. I often make mistakes when I post this data. If this data is important to you, to to the source.

The existing four-well pad:

• 22900, 3,660, Statoil, Topaz 20-17 3H, Banks, t4/13; cum 146K 4/15;
• 22901, 3,225, Statoil, Samson 29-32 3H, Banks, t4/13; cum 130K 4/15;
• 22902, 2,404, Statoil, Topaz 20-17 4TFH, Banks, t5/13; cum 93K 41/5;
• 22903, 2,562, Statoil, Samson 29-32 4TFH, Banks, t5/13; cum 103K 4/15;

Random Look At A Newfield Well South Of Watford City, North Dakota -- June 8, 2015

Updates

July 11, 2015: frack data is now in the file, and information below has been updated
 

Original Post

 

Random look at a Newfield well:

• 23517, 1,411, Newfield, Johnson 150-99-34-27-2H, 32 stages, 3.6 million lbs, South Tobacco Garden, t3/15, cum 40K 5/15;

Production data:  

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	4-2015	30	12877	13032	6214	21890	21614	6
BAKKEN	3-2015	22	18028	17659	14141	24975	17278	7499

 
Note: as of the date of the original post, the well is still listed DRL status, which usually means the well has not been fracked. Obviously this well has been fracked, but the data is not yet scanned in at the NDIC website. (I suppose it's possible this well has not been fracked; we'll see.)

According to the file report, this well is located five miles south of Watford City; its target was the C facies of the Middle Bakken:

"The horizontal well path did an average job of following formation dip considering all of the undulations. 100% of the production well bore was drilled within the Middle Bakken Formation. 58.6% drilled within the productive C facies rock of the Middle Bakken Formation. 11.4% was drilled with the productive D facies rock of the Middle Bakken Formation. 14.2% was drilled in the "E" facies and 15.8% was drilled low in the "B" facies. ... Sample evaluation combined with gas and oil shows point to the well as being a commercially viable, productive oil well."

Background gas recorded as high as 1300 units with max gas at 3,907 units near the end of the lateral.

The drilling required six drill bits and took a total of 214 hours to complete.

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Current Events

The Shawshank Redemption is showing this evening on AMC. 

First Drone Manufactured In North Dakota Rolled Out, Wahpeton, North Dakota -- June 8, 2015

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

WAHPETON — "The skies are open for business in North Dakota."

That statement was how John Perry, CEO of the Florida-based unmanned aerial system company Altavian, described the milestone occasion of the first drone manufactured in North Dakota as it was rolled out Friday.

The unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) machinery was built at ComDel Innovation in Wahpeton. The company signed an agreement with Altavian to manufacture the UAS drones and components in Wahpeton.

Because of the partnership, ComDel hosted the celebration of the roll-out with representatives from both companies as well as government officials present.
"This is a fairly mature technology and is already being used by public agencies," Perry said at the event. "The recent changes in the regulations now allows for operations so what we really see coming is a big scale-up in the industry.

See also: background. 

Monday, June 8, 2015

Wells coming off the confidential list have been updated. I got started late because I took the granddaughters to "computer camp." That's a whole 'nother story, which I will tell later.

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"Energy Cookie"

Today's EIA energy cookie:

In an effort to better present crude oil storage capacity and use across the United States, EIA has prepared new tables as part of the semiannual Working and Net Available Shell Storage Capacity Report. The new series show crude oil stocks held at refineries crude oil in tanks and underground storage in each Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD). Previously, this information was only available at the national level. --- EIA

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"Bakken Information"

A long, long time ago I linked the "Bakken Information" site but a "long, long time ago," the site was down. It appears to be back up -- and probably has been back up for a "long, long time." I just have not checked it in a long time. It's a good resource.  Although this is not the "home page," click on this link first, and then at the top you can click on the other tabs, including up-to-date rigs in North Dakota.

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The Bakken: Another Word For "Resilient"

For the archives only. I think a lot of this is way too early to tell. The dust is yet to settle. From Seeking Alpha today, a contributor writes:

The U.S. shale oil and gas producers have turned out to be far more resilient to cheap commodity prices than anyone expected. Amid the downturn, the exploration and production companies have focused on reducing costs and improving efficiency. This has led to a 15% to 30% decline in break-even costs while producers now expect to pump up to 30% more oil from a single well than before.

As a result, despite the significant drop in oil prices since last year, the industry hasn't witnessed a string of bankruptcies. Rather, companies like Whiting Petroleum and EOG Resources have been mulling over ramping up the drilling activity once oil prices stabilize in the $65 a barrel window while Pioneer Natural Resources is already putting additional rigs to work and is eyeing a full rebound, in terms of number of horizontal rigs, by the first quarter of next year.

If it was OPEC's plan to force the exit of major shale oil producer, then that clearly hasn't worked. It wasn't surprising, therefore, when on Friday, the oil cartel said that it would continue producing 30 million barrels of oil a day. By doing so, OPEC has dashed out any hopes regarding a quick rebound in oil prices. Although oil might not climb back to $100 a barrel in the foreseeable future, on a positive note, OPEC has also decided that it is not going to exacerbate the supply glut by raising its ceiling. Perhaps the group is comfortable with the ongoing slow recovery and has no intention of pushing the prices back to under $50 a barrel.

Mother Earth Will Avoid Global Warming Catastrophe -- London School Of Economics -- June 8, 2015

I can't get my mind around these numbers, but ...

This is from a story about burning coal seams in India. In the article:

BCCL accounts for about 7 percent of Coal India's output and has projected growth of 54 percent to 53 million tonnes in five years, according to a company document seen by Reuters.

Its success will help decide how close Coal India gets to its ambitious target of output of 1 billion tonnes by 2019/20.

Meanwhile, over at the World Resources Institute which advocates reduction of greenhouse gases:

Our research shows that 1,199 new coal-fired plants with a total installed capacity of 1,401,268 megawatts (MW) are being proposed globally. If all of these projects are built, it would add new coal power capacity that is almost four times the current capacity of all coal-fired plants in the United States."

That was back in 2012.

But apparently things look much better than alarmists suggest. This is from Bonn, Germany, which really likes coal:

In a boost for hopes to curb climate change, China's greenhouse gas emissions will probably peak in 2025, five years earlier than its stated target.

On current trends, the world's biggest carbon emitter will discharge 12.5-14 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) in 2025, after which emissions will decline.

"This finding suggests it is increasingly likely that the world will avoid global warming of more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels," they said in a statement.

The average temperature goal, which translates into 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, is the upper limit targeted by the UN, which is seeking to enshrine it in a global accord in December.

My hunch is that the cutback in flaring in the Bakken and the trend toward decreasing shale oil production, provided most of the good news with regard to the risk of the earth overheating.