A Natural Gas Well To Watch; A Wildcat In North Dakota Produces One Million BOE In Three Years -- October 15, 2015

Updates

August 8, 2017: see reader's comment; apparently "well gave out" -- perhaps the casing collapsed; regardless, well will be plugged and abandoned. 

February 20, 2017: PA -- I guess that's it for this remarkable well. 

October 18, 2015: after posted the original post, a reader sent me four photos of Sharon #1 taken over the past weekend:

Original Post 

Disclaimer: in a long note like this, there will be typographical and factual errors. In addition, I may be "seeing" things that do not exist and/or missing things that do exist. If this information is important to you, go to the source.

A huge "thank you" to the reader for alerting me to this well. (I believe this is the second time the reader has alerted me to this well, but I had forgotten all about it. My bad.)

As noted, a reader notified me of this well. Application/permit by MBI; well transferred to BTA, December, 2011:

• 21235, 0, BTA/MBI, Sharon 1, North Taylor oil field/wildcat, Winnipeg pool, 160 acres spacing unit, t2/12; oil cum 12K; natural gas cum 5,880,579 MCF 8/15;

This was a wildcat well which suggests that the North Taylor oil field was not a named field at the time it was drilled. Note the recent NDIC hearing dockets:

Docket: Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Case 21588, BTA, North Taylor-Winnipeg Gas Pool, redefine field limits, rules, Stark County -- that case was continued to September, 2015 and it was continued to October, 2015 (although I didn't see it there -- either missing or I missed it). Currently the North Taylor field is 320 acres, the south half of section 4-140N-93W.

Previous posts in which this well was discussed or noted:

• December 29, 2012
• December 23, 2012
• June 20, 2012
• June 20, 2012

Last twelve months production:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
WINNIPEG	8-2015	0	0	0	0	238	238	0
WINNIPEG	7-2015	6	101	0	504	25408	24946	0
WINNIPEG	6-2015	30	342	691	792	182769	180459	0
WINNIPEG	5-2015	31	327	225	230	217393	215006	0
WINNIPEG	4-2015	30	318	218	129	203977	201667	0
WINNIPEG	3-2015	31	294	221	99	196482	194095	0
WINNIPEG	2-2015	28	233	453	185	178994	176838	0
WINNIPEG	1-2015	31	405	454	230	197402	195015	0
WINNIPEG	12-2014	31	347	222	33	190836	188449	0
WINNIPEG	11-2014	30	404	444	160	182958	180648	0
WINNIPEG	10-2014	31	354	229	152	184071	181684	0
WINNIPEG	9-2014	30	440	466	175	181347	179037	0
WINNIPEG	8-2014	31	433	458	130	193639	191252	0

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The well is four miles north of Taylor, North Dakota, in the southwest corner of the state, in the northeast corner of Stark County. The well is about 100 miles northwest of the "Sleeping Giant."

Nearest well: Sharon #1 is 1855 feet from the Conoco Stoxen #1 located 592' FNL x 709' FWL of section 9-140N-93W. The Stoxen well was completed as a dry hole in 1964, drilled to the Red River, it TD'ed at 11,718'.

In the graphic below, note how little activity is in this area (as in "none"):

Selected formation depth (in feet) (stratigraphic formations):

• Base Fox Hills: approx. 2000 feet
• Niobrara: not mentioned
• Greenhorn: 4,110
• Lodgepole: 8,667
• Middle Bakken: 9,435
• Three Forks: 9,446
• Red River: 11,430
• Winnipeg Shale: 12,106

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NDIC File No: 21235
Well Type: OG     Well Status: A     Status Date: 2/25/2012     Wellbore type: Vertical
Location: SWSW 4-140-93     Footages: 660 FSL 680 FWL
Latitude: 46.965195     Longitude: -102.429673
Current Operator: BTA OIL PRODUCERS, LLC
Current Well Name: SHARON #1
Elevation(s): 2309 KB   2285 GR   2285 GL     Total Depth: 12381     Field: NORTH TAYLOR
Spud Date(s):  12/20/2011
Completion Data
   Pool: WINNIPEG     Perfs: 12228-12278     Comp: 2/25/2012     Status: F     Date: 2/28/2012
Cumulative Production Data
   Pool: WINNIPEG     Cum Oil: 11622     Cum MCF Gas: 5880579     Cum Water: 6119
Production Test Data
   IP Test Date: 2/28/2012     Pool: WINNIPEG     IP Oil: 0     IP MCF: 5011     IP Water: 0

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Data Points / Comments / Things To Ponder

First of all, I'm not going to do the MCF-to-BOE conversion because I often make simple arithmetic errors. However, this is a lot of natural gas. I would appreciate it if someone smarter than I do the calculation (in the comments section, is fine; and anonymous is fine).

Note how remote this well is. Also note that all this natural gas is being captured and sold. There is an obvious question to be asked. In an earlier post, there were indications that this well was hooked up to an MDU natural gas pipeline.

Remember recent news item: CLR and Badlands NGLs; petrochemical plant.

Recent news item: wildcatting for natural gas in Ohio.  

Those incredible natural gas wells in Ohio and Pennsylvania are horizontal wells and fracked. This well was vertical and not fracked.

The NDIC hearing docket to define a new North Taylor-Winnepeg gas field. 

This natural gas well is 1855 feet from a dry Red River well that was drilled in 1964.  


  Classical Gas, Mason Williams

100% (2/2) Of New Bakken Wells Going To DUC Status; Two (2) New Permits -- North Dakota -- October 15, 2015

Active rigs:

	10/15/2015	10/15/2014	10/15/2013	10/15/2012	10/15/2011
Active Rigs	66	190	184	189	195

Four (4) new permits:

• Operator: EOG (4)
• Field: Parshall (Mountrail)
• Comments: 

CLR renews three (3) permits (the Cuskelly wells in Dunn County); and, MRO renews two (2) wells (Litvin and Cross, both in Dunn County, also).

Wells coming off confidential list Friday:

• 23790, SI/NC, CLR, Pasadena 2-2H, Banks, no production data,
• 28534, SI/NC, Hess, HA-Sanford-152-96-1819H-4, Westberg, no production data,

Jack Kemp's Weekly Fossil Fuel Tweets -- October 15, 2015

Residual fuel oil stocks continue trending gently higher; nearing 10-year max.

Propane stocks rise another 1.8 million bbls to a record 102 million bbls, almost off the charts.

US distillate stocks continued usual seasonal drawdown, a -1.5 million bbls, but still well above the ten-year average; and still +23 million bbls over 2014 level.

US gasoline stocks near their 10-year high; fell to 24.4 days of current consumption, from 24.8 the prior week; close to 2014 level of 24.1.

US gasoline stocks fell -2.7 million bbls, as refiners began to correct post-summer oversupply.

Ready for next recession? Current "US expansion" already 76 months old, longer than all but four previous expansions (only ones longer: 1991 - 2001; 1961 - 1970; 1938 - 1945; 1982 - 1991). The longest last about 120 months; thus we have long way to go to beat that record. It looks the average expansion lasts about 24 months.

Platts: OPEC crude oil exports to rise 60,000 bopd to average 24 million bopd in four weeks over October 31.  

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Notes For The Granddaughters

Perhaps others remember "Mazda lamps." I did not. I first came across "Mazda lamps" in a letter written by Martha Gellhorn. From wiki:

Mazda was a trademarked name registered by General Electric in 1909 for incandescent light bulbs. The name was used from 1909 through 1945 in the United States by GE and Westinghouse. Mazda brand light bulbs were made for decades after 1945 outside the USA. The company chose the name due to its association with Ahura Mazda, the transcendental and universal God of Zoroastrianism whose name means light of wisdom (Ahura = light, Mazda = wisdom) in the Avestan language.

In 1909 the Mazda name was created for the tungsten filament light bulb. GE sold bulbs under this trademark starting in 1909. GE promoted the mark as identifying tungsten filament bulbs with predictable performance and life expectancy. GE also licensed the Mazda name, socket sizes, and tungsten filament technology to other manufacturers to establish a standard for lighting. Bulbs were soon sold by many manufacturers with the Mazda name licensed from GE, including British Thomson-Houston in the United Kingdom, Toshiba in Japan, and GE's chief competitor Westinghouse.

Tungsten-filament bulbs of the Mazda type were initially more costly than carbon filament bulbs, but used less electricity. Often electrical utilities would trade new lamps for consumers' burned-out bulbs. In at least one case the authority regulating energy rates required the utility to use only tungsten bulbs so as not to inflate customer's energy use.

The company dropped the campaign in 1945. GE's patents on the tungsten filament lamp expired in the late 1930s and other forms of lighting were becoming more important than incandescent bulbs. GE stopped licensing the trademark to other manufacturers, although it continued to renew the trademark registration up to 1990. The registration on trademark no. 77,779 expired in 2000.

Today, the Mazda name is mostly associated with the Mazda automobile manufacturer of Japan (which coexisted with Toshiba's Mazda bulbs in its early years). The Mazda trademark is now split between the Japanese manufacturer where it applies to automobiles (including automobile lights and batteries) and GE for non-automotive uses.

GE's Mazda bulbs were manufactured in northeast Minneapolis. The building is now headquarters for Minneapolis Public Schools.

Bakken Economy: $150 Million Truck Reliever Route Around Williston Complete -- October 15, 2015

Posted earlier, this is quite a story: North Dakota celebrates $150 million solution to Williston traffic woes. The Bismarck Tribune is reporting. I find it quite amazing how quickly the county, state, and surface owners got this done. There were even some North American Native artifact issues that had to be resolved. I drove the "reliever" route numerous times -- before construction began, and then just a few weeks ago when it was all but complete.

Construction is now complete on a permanent truck reliever route around Williston, where traffic counts have grown 160 percent since 2008.

“The explosion of truck traffic during the Bakken boom, was as I would call it, ‘truckmageddon,’” said Sen. David Rust, R-Tioga, during an event Wednesday in Williston. “And it needed to be addressed.”

Traffic congestion was the No. 1 complaint of western North Dakota residents after the influx of oil activity, Gov. Jack Dalrymple said.

The state invested about $150 million on a permanent truck bypass around Williston, allowing trucks to travel up to 70 mph on a 13-mile, four-lane route that connects U.S. Highway 85 and U.S. Highway 2.

The state also invested more than $27 million on a temporary bypass around Williston while the permanent route was in the works. In addition, the state has constructed truck routes that serve Dickinson, Watford City, Alexander, Killdeer and New Town.

In the big scheme of things (Syria, the US debt ceiling, etc) this is not that big a deal, but for Williston, Williams County, the Bakken, this is a huge, huge deal. This area -- on the northwest side of Williston -- is where much of the industrial activity will take place as the Bakken continues to build out.

But then look at this: note where the "trucker reliever route" (NDDOT Bypass) is in relation to the new Williston airport. Really, really huge.

Airport relocation information here.

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The Poll Is Still Open

Updates

October 19, 2015: The Los Angeles Times is reporting that SecTreasury is concerned that an "accident" could befall the US if the debt limit is not raised by November 3, 2015. I wonder what he means by "accident."

I  think his biggest concern is his own hide. If the debt limit is not raised, investigative reporters will learn more about Lew's extraordinary means to keep the debt frozen for the past six eight months. He may have caused the accident. It may turn out that he knew the cliff was coming six eight months ago, but instead of slowing down back then, he kept the pedal to the metal hoping that the bridge would be completed by the time he arrived. I assume he was taking from Peter to pay Paul these last six months, and now Paul has run out of money. Huge, huge game of chicken, if he's being honest. My hunch is that this is all political theater, the date is "fake" and the sun will rise November 4, 2015.

From the article:

The nation technically hit the debt limit in March, but Treasury officials have been using so-called extraordinary measures since then to juggle government finances and continue borrowing. [March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October = 8 months.]

What is most interesting is this paragraph:

At that point, he said, the Treasury will have about $30 billion in cash and will have to use that and the daily inflow of revenue to pay a host of major bills, including Social Security payments, federal salaries and interest on the debt.

Many years ago I connected Social Security and the national debt in the same paragraph and readers took me to task for that, reminding me that Social Security was not part of the national budget/debt; was solvent through 2032; and, in the Algore lockbox. 

It was noteworthy that Lew did not mention military pensions in that paragraph. Federal salaries clearly take precedence over pensions. 
 

Original Post

Rollcall is now reporting that SecTreasury Lew has told House Speaker John A. Boehner, that “based on our best and most recent information, we now estimate that extraordinary measures will be exhausted no later than Tuesday, November 3.”

For those paying attention that is two days earlier than originally reported.

Also note this last statement at the link:

The third day of the month is when Social Security checks are issued, as was noted in a report Wednesday from the Congressional Budget Office.

It is my understanding that Social Security checks are not affected by the debt ceiling limit because Social Security cash is held in the Algore lock box. However, military retiree checks are not in that same lockbox. Fortunately, military retiree checks go out the first of the month, so the government has almost a full month to figure this out.

However, the fact that "someone" is connecting "Social Security payments" with the national debt speaks volumes.

By the way, that phrase "extraordinary measures" is the reason the national debt has been held frozen for months. I've explained how SecTreasury managed to do that but looks like the party is over.

I wonder if John gave the letter to an intern instructing her to take it over to Paul Ryan's office? Rumor has it that when the press asks John about the letter, he will respond, "I haven't seen it yet."

This is probably the US version of "hot potato."

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Most Important Retail Story This Week?

Walmart.

Flashback to August 18, 2015, from Reuters:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc reported weaker quarterly earnings and lowered its annual forecast on Tuesday, as it copes with higher labor costs, a squeeze on pharmacy margins and sliding sales at its British supermarket chain.

Shares of the world's largest retailer fell 3 percent to $69.75 after trading at its lowest in 2-1/2 years.

The results showed how a move to lift wages and other costs have kept Wal-Mart from taking full advantage of a strengthening U.S. economy, although there was a bright spot in its report: a fourth straight quarter of same-store sales growth.

And before that, May 19, 2015, in Forbes:

As expected, Walmart’s first-quarter earnings were below analysts’ projections. A kitchen sink’s worth of reasons were cited for the miss: the strong dollar, employee wage increases, consumer wallet tightening, lower gas prices, and weakness in its e-commerce business.

The truth is a lot simpler – Walmart has a sales problem. The company brought in essentially flat sales numbers at stores open at least a year (called comparable sales in the retail industry), reporting an anemic 1 percent increase. This is not a new story. Back in November 2014, the company announced its first quarter of positive comparable sales (a still weak .5 percent in the US) after seven straight quarters of declines. It should be noted that back then, the exchange rate was also cited as an earnings dampener, even though the company’s earnings were actually above analyst estimates.

What’s the cause of Walmart’s sales problem? It’s not all that complicated, really. Walmart continues to operate in a saturated market. Some competitors like Target have more cachet. Others, like dollar stores, continue to nip at the edges of its market basket. Its customer doesn’t seem to have an appetite to move online, and until now, the company hasn’t created any compelling reason for on-line shoppers to pick Walmart.com over Amazon.com or any other retailer, really. That’s what happens when your market is saturated. You have nowhere to go.

Today, at USA Today:

Walmart shares plunged to their lowest one-day drop in nearly three decades Wednesday after the U.S. retailing giant jolted financial markets by forecasting a 6% to 12% earnings drop in fiscal year 2017.

Shares of the Bentonville, Ark. company dropped 10.04% or $6.70 to close at $60.03 on the startling news Walmart executives delivered at the company's annual investors conference with Wall Street analysts, held in New York City.

My comments:

• Walmart.com will be a losing proposition for Walmart
• one wonders if Walmart needs to get back to its niche: small-town America; avoid major urban areas; nothing but controversy, problems, and retail saturation in major urban areas

I always thought the small, neighborhood Walmart stores would thrive, but I was completely wrong. I've only seen one and it's about four miles from where we live. We visit it only when having sushi at "Cow Town" next door. It's a clean, modern store. And there are never more than three customers in the store when we visit.

Trempealeau Formation, Ohio

Now it's the Trempealeau ("the Tramp" for those in the play), 150 miles from Ohio's Utica shale drilling activity. Bizjournals is reporting:

Houston-based EOR Technology LLC plans to drill the well about 45 miles north of Columbus.

EOR typically stands for enhanced oil recovery, which includes techniques to extract oil after much of it has already been drained.

Central Ohio has always been home to drilling, but with traditional vertically drilled wells. Part of the reason the Utica shale in eastern Ohio is coveted by drilling companies is because it's now economically accessible to get the oil and gas in it via horizontal drilling and hydraulically fracturing, or fracking.

Now that practice is coming to Morrow County, Central Ohio, about 150 miles from most Utica shale drilling activity in the state.

The drilling permit is for 3,200 feet, a depth too shallow to tap the Utica shale, as Marcellus Drilling News points out. Instead, it's the Trempealeau formation, state records show, whose oil was coveted in the 1960s.

Haven't heard of "the Tramp?" Neither had I. Here's an abstract of a 1965 paper on same:

Concentrated in central Ohio's Morrow County, the Trempealeau oil play has proven to be the most prolific in the state's recent history.

Unrestricted producing rates and the relatively shallow depth of 3,000 ft have created an added incentive to finding the scattered Cambrian erosional remnants that comprise the productive areas.

Approximately 413 wells were completed in 1964 and Trempealeau production from the Morrow pool during the year was almost 11 million bbl. [Equivalent to 10 days in the Bakken.]

The producing reservoirs are vugular dolomite with evidence of vertical fracturing.

Average core properties include 7.8 per cent porosity and 49 md permeability. Average per well recovery from an analysis of 75 wells is 68,000 bbl, while individual well recoveries have ranged up to 500,000 bbl.

Primary recoveries from the better areas are predicted at around 30 per cent of the oil in place, a particularly high figure considering these are predominantly solution gas drive reservoirs.

Secondary recovery will be a challenge to operators since conventional methods do not appear favorable in view of current data. This paper presents a summary of Trempealeau reservoir performance, particularly the Ashland development in the Morrow field.

So, while California does all it can to kill its in-state oil and gas industry, the rest of the world drills on. Good for you, Ohio. Wishing you "continued good luck." Rumor has it that President Obama will be in Ohio to check out the new Trempealeau well.