On Tap for Thursday: STO To Make Bid For WLL; Wells Coming Off Confidential List; Update on The Gunderson Wells; RBN Energy

STO to make bid for WLL?

Montana Headlines got the election right. Nice essay.

Scott Brown's legacy: the Republican that ensured passage of ObamaCare; and then loses race for re-election; no good deed goes unpunished; 

NOG: beats by a penny.

RBN Energy: Part 2 of the NGL storage sites in Arizona

Wells coming off the confidential list Thursday:

• 21360, 458, CLR, Lakewood 2-20H, Upland, 
• 22550, 1.053, Hess, EN-Labar 154-94-0310H-2, Alkali Creek, huge well; t8/12; cum 38K 9/12;
• 22580, 240, CLR, Marcy 3-24H, Oliver, t8/12; cum 12K 9/12;
• 22618, drl, CLR, Thronson 1-28AH, Alkali Creek, [note the "AH" designation; explained earlier]
• 22629, 180, WPX, Sweet Grass Woman 22-15HB, Spotted Horn, t7/12; cum 40K 9/12;
• 22696, drl, BEXP, Ross-Alger 6-7 3H, Alger,
• 22824, 590, Hunt, Halliday 3-11-2H, Wolf Bay, t8/12; cum 44K 9/12;
• 22839, drl, BEXP, Gunderson 15-22 5H, Banks,

For newbies: this is an instructive case. Look at the WPX/Sweet Grass Woman well above. An IP of 180. Not much to brag about. But then look at the production:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	9-2012	30	15166	15126	4380	15123	8604	5915
BAKKEN	8-2012	31	23425	24052	14218	23912	21745	1500
BAKKEN	7-2012	4	947	0	7131	1584	0	1518
BAKKEN	6-2012	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

*********************
 

Here are the Gunderson wells in 15/22-152-98:

• 22577, conf, BEXP, Gunderson 15-22 4TFH, 15-152-98,
• 22578, conf, BEXP, Gunderson 15-22 3H, 15-152098,
• 22839, conf, BEXP, Gunderson 15-22 5H, 15-152-98,
• 20345, 2,746, BEXP, Gunderson 15-22 1H, t7/1l; cum 152K 9/12
• 23005, conf, BEXP, Gunderson 15-22 2TFH,
• 23006, conf, BEXP, Gunderson 15-22 6H, 

22839, 22577, and 22578 are on the same pad.
23005 and 23006 are on the same pad.
There is a seventh well in that same section:

• 16135, 240, MBI, LM 2, a Madison well, a fairly short lateral, t5/06; cum 63K 9/12;

Two inches of global warming in Belmont, Massachusetts

Enbridge and Sempra impress: posted elsewhere

Chevron: more bad news from South America; posted elsewhere

DVN: sells energy assets to Japan; posted elsewhere

HUGE! CLR Goes Over 1 Million Net Acres in the Bakken

Updates

Later, 11:20 pm: see comment regarding Newfield. If the seller is Newfield, one would expect to see a press release from Newfield. One would think it would be material, but Newfield is a $3.5 billion company and maybe an announcement selling 120,000 acres can be "delayed." I honestly don't know.

But the comment has piqued a bit of interest. First, it's hard to put together 120,000 acres from a multitude of sellers.

OXY USA has 300,000 acres but I associate OXY USA farther south in McKenzie and Dunn counties.

But Newfield has 100,000 acres, but quickly going through my database most of their permits have been in McKenzie county, so we are back to square one. I can find several publicly traded companies in Williams and/or Divide but not both (excluding obvious ones like CLR). For example, Samson Resources has a lot of permits in Divide, but not Williams. Zavanna and Zenergy have a lot of permits in Williams but not divide. Petro-Hunt, LLC, has been very, very active lately, and not publicly traded would not have to announce the transaction. But Petro-Hunt's permits are in Williams County; I don't see any permits in Petro-Hunt permits in Divide County.

So, all idle chatter. But to suggest this for the moment: Petro-Hunt has been very, very busy with permitting lately; a $650 million cash infusion for acres not in their core area, and not having to announce, it's very possibly Petro-Hunt. It caught me by surprise when Halcon (HK) bought 81,000 acres from Petro-Hunt.

Original Post

Link to the press release here.

Continental Resources, Inc. (CLR) announced today it has entered into an agreement to acquire certain Bakken producing and undeveloped properties for $650 million. The property includes leasehold of approximately 120,000 net acres, primarily in Divide and Williams counties, North Dakota, and production of approximately 6,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).

Continental is currently the largest leaseholder in the Bakken, with 984,040 net acres as of September 30, 2012. If completed, the proposed acquisition will increase this total to 1.1 million net acres.

In addition, Continental announced it has entered into an agreement to sell its producing crude oil and natural gas properties and supporting assets in its East Region for cash proceeds of $125 million. The East Region primarily includes properties east of the Mississippi River, including the Illinois Basin and the state of Michigan, among other areas. Production from the properties included in the sale agreement averaged approximately 1,100 boepd for the three month period ended September 30, 2012.

More to follow.

Back of the envelope: $650 million/120,000 --> $5,000/acre. Not bad. Will this close before the fiscal cliff taxes, January 1, 2012?

Global Warming Hits Mitt Romney's Hometown: Belmont, Massachusetts

The snow started coming earlier this afternoon -- it was not predicted as of yesterday for this part of Massachusetts. Winds and precipitation are expected to get worse tonight. It's weakly blizzardy but very, very mild by Bakken standards. But the granddaughters loved it.

Eleven (11) New Permits;

Bakken Operations

Active Rigs: 188 (steady, up a bit)

Eleven (11) new permits

• Operators: CLR (4), Hess (3), XTO (2) SM Energy, Ballantyne
• Fields: Dollar Joe (Williams), Grinnell (Williams), Spring Coulee (Bottineau), Indian Hill (McKenzie), Robinson Lake (Mountrail)
• Comments: No Newfield or OXY USA permit today;

Wells coming off confidential list were reported earlier, see sidebar at the right.

Producing wells completed:

• 12699: this was a shut-in gas well which produced from the Red River formation; Encore re-completed the Shultz 8-3 to the Madison formation; completed 10/18/12; no production data from the Madison yet; Buffalo Wallow, 8-148-100;

• 19638, 2,563, Oasis, Davis 5300 42-12H, Crazy Man Creek, t9/12; cum 12K 9/12;
• 22092, 1,073, QEP, MHA 2-05-04H-148-91, Heart Butte, t10/12; cum --
• 22131, 502, WPX, Mason 2-11HX, Van Hook, t10/12; cum --
• 22558, 334, Triangle, State 154-102-25-36-1H, Rosebud, t9/12; cum 9K 9/12;

Random Update of Crazy Man Creek

Crazy Man Creek has been updated.