Blogging Will Be Intermittent Today -- More Soccer

We just won the last game in the first round, winning two of three games. We are #1 in our bracket and are in the quarterfinals later this afternoon.

At the mall after the end of the first round.

At the Mall

Alexander, North Dakota -- Football Is Back -- September 5, 2015

The Dickinson Press is reporting that high school football returns to Alexander:

Alexander Public School, which had about 55 students before oil development took off in the area, recently had a co-op arrangement with neighboring Watford City for athletics.

With 210 students enrolled this fall, and enrollment projected to be 360 by 2018-19, Alexander officials decided it was time to break away from Watford City and bring back its own teams.

Oasis / QEP Foreman Wells

Locator: 10010FOREMA.

Updates

April 24, 2025: production data updated below.

Foreman Permits / Wells

• 31536, IA/2,053, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 3-2-1BHR, Spotted Horn, a great well; t2/17; cum 160K 10/18; cum 208K 2/22; cum 217K 3/24; offline;
  
• 31535, 2,238, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 2-2-1THR, Spotted Horn, a great well; second full month with 42K; t3/17; cum 171K 10/18; cum 219K 2/22; cum 217K 3/24; cum 244K 2/25;
  
• 31534, IA/1,757, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 4-2-1BHR, Spotted Horn, t3/17; cum 155K 10/18; cum 205K 2/22; cum 216K 9/24; offline
• 31533, IA/992, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 1-2-1T3H, Spotted Horn, t2/17; cum 74K 10/18; cum 232K 2/22; cum 100K 3/24; cum 109K 3/24; off line;
  
• 31532, IA/1,962, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 5-2-1BH, Spotted Horn, t2/17; cum 169K 10/18; cum 256K 9/24; offline;
• 31531, IA/1,644, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 3-2-1TH, Spotted Horn, t2/17; cum 149K 10/18; cum 198K 2/22;  cum 209K 1/24; off line;
  
• 31690, 2,177, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 6-2-1BH, Spotted Horn, t2/17; cum 198K 10/18; cum 266K 2/22; cum 293K 2/25;
  
• 31530, IA/1,822, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 12-11-1-2T2H, Blue Buttes, t2/17; cum 108K 10/18; cum 129K 2/22; cum 138K 7/23; offline;
  
• 31689, 2,003, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 12-11-1-2BH, Blue Buttes, t2/17; cum 183K 10/18; cum 275K 2/22; cum 331K 2/25;
  

• 21331, AB/2,164, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 5-2/1H, Spotted Horn, 28 stages, 3.4 million lbs;, t1/12; cum 385K 10/18; cum 408K 11/20; cum 442K 2/25;
  
• 29629, offline/294, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 6-2-1TH, Spotted Horn, t4/15; cum 231K 10/18; cum 291K 1/25;
  
• 28968, offline/2,029, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 36-35-1-2LL, Blue Buttes, t4/15; cum 318K 10/18; huge bump 10/16; cum 371K 2/22; cum 395K 8/24;
  
• 28931, back on line/2,016, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 1-2-1BH, Spotted Horn, t4/15; cum 303K 10/18; cum 352K 2/22; cum 373K 2/25;
  
• 28932, 2,472, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 2-2-1BH, Spotted Horn, t5/15; cum 326K 10/18; cum 395K 2/22; cum 430K 2/25;
  
• 28933, 2,704, Oasis/QEP, Foreman 1-2-1TH, Spotted Horn, t5/15; cum 333K 10/18; cum 389K 2/22; cum 417K 2/25;
  

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The Original Foreman Well Post

July 2, 2015

Remember: The Atlantic Monthly says the Bakken boom is a bust. Pundits say the US shale operators won't be able to survive. And so what do we have here? QEP cancels a 4-well pad to replace it with a 7-well pad in the heart of the Bakken. 

The Atlantic Monthly article at this link: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/north-dakota-oil-boom-bust/396620/.

It appears QEP canceled the permits for the 4-well pad in 2-150-95 (Blue Buttes/Spotted Horn) and replaced them with permits for a 7-well pad. (Note: Foreman is misspelled on the map below).

From the file report of #21331, mostly paraphrased:

Interestingly enough, this was the first well in this drilling unit, back in 2012, and it targeted the Three Forks, not the middle Bakken. It was noted that Helis had drilled ten Devonian Three Forks double-section lateral wells in 2011. It sounds like the drilling window is about 15 to 35 feet.

All prospective pay zones were sampled, studied, reported.

The middle Bakken member was 33 - 38 feet thick here.

The Pronghorn member: "Recently the North Dakota Geological Survey has reclassified the lower approximate 10 feet of the Lower Bakken as a stratigraphically and lithologically distinct unit. The now referred to as the Pronghorn Member is present in Spotted Horn and surrounding fields... it is approximately 8 feet thick in the Foreman 5-2/1H well. The unit thickness is variable and in some wells the interval has not been observed."

The Three Forks: gas shows were significantly lower in the Foreman 5-2/1H than the Jones, State, and Levang wells; this was unexpected; and "nothing int he lithologic observations can account for the decrease in gas shows." Gas shows of 700 units were common. Gas continually increased during the lateral, with connection gases as high as 3,413 units. Trip gases were flared twice; both flares were 2 - 5 feet in height.

The well was considered a success; landing within 1 foot of the desired target and was drilled for 89% of the lateral within the desired target window and 100% within the desired formation.

In long posts like this there will be factual and typographical errors; I do not have formal training in any of this and may have missed important points. If this information is important to you, go to the source.

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Producing Wells Waiting To Be Completed In Area Of Interest

• 29629, see above, QEP, Foreman 6-2-1TH, Spotted Horn, it's gonna be a good well based on early production figures:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
5-2015	14540	9683
4-2015	447	647

• 28968, see above, QEP, Foreman 36-35-1-2LL, Blue Buttes, it's gonna be a good well based on early production figures:

  Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
  5-2015	22378	20853
  4-2015	6167	3524

• 28931, see above, QEP, Foreman 1-2-1BH, Spotted Horn, it's gonna be a good well based on early production figures:

  Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
  5-2015	30568	37436
  4-2015	3299	3404

• 28932, see above, QEP, Foreman 2-2-1BH, Spotted Horn, it's gonna be a good well based on early production figures:

  Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
  5-2015	35671	38733

• 28933, see above, QEP, Foreman 1-2-1TH, Spotted Horn, it's gonna be a good well based on early production figures:

  Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
  5-2015	36932	42843

Whiting's Flatland Wells In Twin Valley Have Been Hooked Up To ONEOK's Pipeline -- September 5, 2015

Regular readers will remember that ONEOK announced a few weeks ago that it had upwards of 700 wells in the Bakken to connect, IIRC. [700 wells this year, 2015; and 600 wells next year, 2016. It should be noted that the Bakken is an oil play, not a natural gas play.]

This morning while updating Whiting's Flatland wells, I noted that the Flatland wells have been connected to the ONEOK pipeline.

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CBR

What happens to excess CBR tank cars? They get parked. For example:

Gennessee and Wyoming, the nation’s largest short line rail road, is collecting as much as $5 a day on each of about 2,000 idle crude rail cars in Utah, the Midwest and Canada.

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Mideast VLCC Tracking: Sailings At Multi-Month Lows

This was reported some time ago, but I'm only now getting to it. For the archives. 

Platts is reporting:

* Middle East's weekly outflow drops to pre-summer lows
* Saudi August departures at four-month low
* China takes 11 VLCCs from Angola in August

The fall in demand to move crude has caused Middle East outflows to tumble to their lowest since before the summer, Platts ship-tracking tool cFlow showed Wednesday, resulting in numerous VLCCs being idled for longer while ample supply and low bunker fuel prices have continued to push down freight rates.

Over the week to Wednesday, sailings from Saudi Arabia, Iraq's Basrah, Iran and the wider Middle East hit their lowest since before the start of June as refinery run cuts across parts of Asia have weakened demand.

So, just when Saudi announces it will not cut production (last October, 2014), causing the price of oil to plummet; Asia sees huge decrease in need for oil. Oh, well.

But look how many ships sail from Saudi Arabia every month; this is really quite amazing -- remember, these are VLCC, the largest tankers:

Departures from Saudi Arabia fell to 24 from 30 last week, while total sailings for August slipped to a four-month low of 125 VLCCs, down from 137 in July.

Iraq:

From Iraq's southern terminals, five tankers left over the week, while in August, a total of 36 departed, up from 34. Despite the slight uptick in VLCC sailings, crude oil exports from Basrah on all ship-types fell in August, to 3.021 million b/d, a drop of 43,000 b/d from July. Oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad, however, said the fall was due to a technical fault in the export system.
Inshallah.

More:

Total outflow from the Middle East -- or the count of ships that left the region -- sank to 19 from 24 last week, also the least since before June. ("Sank" is probably not the best word to use when talking about ships in the Mideast.)

From Africa:

Within West Africa, Angolan departures fell to a three-week low of two, down from three the previous week. In August, a total of 15 ships left, with 11 going to China, which typically takes around two thirds of VLCC sailings from Angola -- currently its second largest supplier of crude after Saudi Arabia.

Also this regarding Angola to US crude oil:

The US also takes crude oil from Angola -- its 10th-largest supplier -- at 100,000 b/d in June, however, the boom in US tight oil production has caused this flow to drop by three quarters from around an average 400,000 b/d in 2010. However, the bulk of the cargoes are hauled on Suezmaxes, with no VLCCs making the voyage this year, while only one went in 2014.

So, not only are we learning about the Bakken, but we are learning about VLCCs and Suezmaxes.

Cedar Coulee Oil Field: A Sweet Spot In Two Sections -- September 4, 2015

Updates

December 4, 2020: CLR activity in this field, update.

Original Post

Cedar Coulee oil field, located in the far northwest corner of Dunn County, is a small rectangular oil field, two sections by eight sections = 16 total sections. The entire field is spaced at 1280 acres. Except. Except for two 640-acre drilling units.

Here is a screenshot from the NDIC GIS map server showing four sections of Cedar Coulee oil field. The two sections in brown (in Cedar Coulee) are the only two sections in Cedar Coulee spaced for 640 acres. All of the rest of the sections, shown in white, are spaced at 1280 acres. Most of Cedar Coulee is pretty quiet; all sections are held by production but generally with just one or two wells. (Again, note that only a small portion of Cedar Creek is included in the screen shot below.)

Look at the two sections in brown in Cedar Coulee, sections 9 and 16:

The wells in these two sections:

Note the production numbers; these are all short laterals. Some folks argue that long laterals, all things being equal, would have twice the production of a short lateral. I'm not sure I agree with that, but be that as it may, here are the numbers of some very, very good wells, being reported by two different companies:

• 28544, 1,159, XTO, Schettler 14X-9A, 1 section, t6/15; cum 131K 12/20; cum 145K 5/22;
  
• 28545, 2,654, XTO, Schettler 14X-9E, 1 section, t6/15; cum 249K 10/20; remains off line 12/20; back on line; cum 270K 5/22;
  
• 28546, 2,318, XTO, Schettler 14X-9B, 1 section, t6/15; cum 251K 12/20; cum 273K 5/22;
  
• 28547, 2,312, XTO, Schettler 14X-9F, 1 section, t6/15; cum 223K 12/20; cum 245K 5/22;
  
• 28548, 1,112, XTO, Schettler 14X-9C, 1 section, t6/15; cum 86K 8/20; remains off line 12/20; back on line, 4/22; cum 92K 5/22;
  
• 28549, 1,841, XTO, Schettler 14X-9F, 1 section, t6/15; cum 161K 12/20; cum 177K 5/22;
  
• 28550, 1,991, XTO, Schettler 14X-9F, 1 section, t6/15; cum 264K 12/20; cum 295K 5/22;

• 19470, 1,274, Hess, Victor Pohribnak 16-1H, t1/11; cum 392K 12/20; off linee 6/22; cum 406K 5/22;
  

• 22944, 609, Hess, LK-Pohribnak-147-96-16H-4, 1 section, t8/12; cum 207K 12/20; cum 216K 6/22;
  
• 21350, 858, Hess, LK-Pohribnak-147-96-16H-3, 1 section, t1/12; cum 180K 12/20; cum 187K 4/22; off line 5/22;
  
• 21380, 1,424, Hess, LK-Pohribnak-147-96-16H-2, 1 section, t1/12; cum 388K 12/20; was off line for a few months in early 2019; back on line as of 5/19; cum 410K 6/22;
  

• 24733, 150, Hess, LK-Pohribnak-147-96-16H-7, 1 section, t10/13; cum 120K 12/20; cum 133K 6/22;
  
• 24734, 1,208, Hess, LK-Pohribnak-147-96-16H-6, 1 section, t10/13; cum 289K 12/20; cum 312K 6/22;
  
• 24735, 981, Hess, LK-Pohribnak-147-96-16H-5, 1 section, t10/13; cum 223K 12/20; cum 239K 6/22;