Ansbro Plans More Drilling In Russian Creek/Willmen Area

Ansbro Pet. has moved one of the rigs in their two rig Bakken program onto the Heiser Trust location in sec. 3, 141N-95W in Dunn Co. The company has also applied for two additional 1280 acre drilling units on the crest of the NW trending Russian Creek Anticline, which extends to Willmen Field about six miles to the NW. The new drilling unit requests are for secs. 23 and 24, 142N-97W and sec 7, 141N-95W and sec 12, 141N-96W. The company has received approval for a number of 1280 drilling units in the area on the flank of the anticline, but it remains to be seen whether they will be drilled as the company seems to be concentrating it drilling effort to those units on the apex of the nose. Ansbro has recently switched from dual lateral horizontal wells to a single two mile long laterals in an effort to reduce costs.

Whitetail/Blacktail Area Update, Billings Co.

Continental Res. plans new development in the Blacktail area and has obtained permission to establish a 1280 drilling unit in secs. 16 and 21, T144-R99 in Billings Co. The company also requested two 1280 acre drilling units in secs. 3 and 10, and 4 and 9, T143-R99 in the Whitetail Field area, but the company asked that these two requests be dismissed. These latter two units are just east of the recently drilled Thompson Bakken well by Kerr-McGee in section 8, and a high volume Red River gas well on the Yourk lease in SE of sec. 9 that was drilled by Amoco in the late 70s, and which only produced for a few years before being abandoned. It is possible that these cases were dismissed because Kerr-McGee owns the majority interest in these tracts and may plan to be the operator if/when they are developed.

The planned Bakken well to the north is in the old Blacktail Field, a one well marginal Madison field discovered in the early 60s by Hunt Oil. A number of offsets turned out to be dry and the remaining well was plugged shortly thereafter. The overall area is just north of St. Demetrius Field where Continental is currently drilling the Malkowski 1-35H in sec. 35, T143-R99. In any event, there is some interesting geology in the area.

EOG Picks Up Pace In Parshall Field

EOG Res.has added a third rig and permitted two new wells in its highly productive Parshall Field in Mountrail Co. The company permitted the Alan 1-06H, sec 6, T152-R90, and the Risan 1-34H, sec 34, T153-T90. Last week the company indicated that development in the area had been modest while it awaited results of 3D seismic in the area, which has now been processed. The company also released data indicating that net reserves in the area may total 30-70 million bbls. If the upper range is achieved, the field may approach "giant" status, which is 100 million bbls. The field has produced just over 28k bbls since coming on line in May 2005 and recently added production from a third well.

It's Whopper Time In Charlson Field

Petro-Hunt has hit gold at its USA 2D-3-1H well in sec. 2, T153-R95 in McKenzie Co. The horizontal well was completed in Oct. 2006 for 729 bbls oil/day, 785 mcf/day, and only 2 bbls water/day. Currently, it is still producing over 700 bbls/day, 875 mcf/day and virtually no water. To date the well has produced just over 80k bbls oil, almost 96 mmcfg, and 35 bbls of water, and has likely pretty much paid for itself in six months. The interesting aspect of this well is it is reported to be completed in the Three Forks formation (and likely in the Sanish Sand zone), which is the formation immediately underlying the Bakken formation. Most field orders regarding the Bakken define the "Bakken Pool" as 50 ft. above the top of the Bakken and 50 ft. below the top of the Three Forks. This is due to fractures which extend from the Bakken into the adjoining formations and the entire section is considered to be productive from the Bakken.

Hunt has indicated that the well is in the Bakken pool, so it can be assumed that the lateral is within 50 ft below the bottom of the Bakken formation. If that is the case, it is interesting that the company chose to place the wellbore in the Sanish Sand instead of the mid-Bakken. Regardless, it certainly appears to have been a wise decision. It will be interesting if other companies try this strategy and test the productive extent of the Sanish Sand in this area.

Oakdale Area Activity Increasing

Burlington Resources recently began a two rig drilling program in the Oakdale area, central Dunn Co., just east and southeast of the Killdeer Mountains. The company apparently has some working agreement in the area with Continental Resources. The Bakken discovery well for this area, the Burlington Res. Jensen 1-5H, sec 5, T146-R95 continues to produce over 270 bbls/day and has total production of over 24k bbls since Sept. 2006. Burlington recently permitted the Ryden well in sec. 24, T146-R96 and has already drilled two other producing well since the Jensen well with at least a half dozen more planned.

Murphy Creek Area Heating Up

After a recent drought in drilling permits, Kerr-McGee received two today for the Murphy Creek Field area located about 4 miles SW of Killdeer in Dunn Co. The two new permits, Sadowsky 24-1H and Kulish 24-3H, in secs. 1 and 3, T144N-R96W, are with a mile or so of a well the company recently spudded in sec.10, the Schwindt 31-10H. Kerr-McGee has also drilled two producing wells in secs. 2 and 11 within the past six months and recently moved the rig back to drill the Schwindt well after drilling a wildcat Bakken well north of the old Fairfeld store in Billings Co. The company originally sought to drill dual lateral wells on 1280 acre spacing in this area, but later changed its plans and now drills dual lateral wells on 640 acre spacing.

The Voss well in sec. 14, now operated by Marathon, was one of the original mid-Bakken wildcats drilled in Dunn Co. in 2005. These future Kerr-McGee projects remain in doubt, however, since the company announced plans to sell its Williston Basin assets to Encore Acquisition Co. two months ago, and the new company's plans for the Bakken are unclear. http://www.shareholder.com/encore/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=227166

This area is also of interest to Marathon as they have several wells permitted west of the Kerr-McGee wells. This general area is near a major fault in the Basin, which is thought to be favorable for fracture development in the Bakken. An interesting dry hole is also located in the area in sec. 4, T144-R96. More on all of this later.

That Flare

The picture of the flare on the right side of the blog header was taken during the drilling process of EOG's Parshall 2-36H well in Mountrail Co. EOG has discovered the best mid-Bakken field in the state and currently has two rigs running in the area with a dozen or more wells staked and about four or five already drilled and producing. Some of the wells had initial gauges well over 1k bbls/day, which is attributed to a NE/SW trending fault trend in the area. It's not uncommon to have very extensive oil and gas flows on some of the best wells in the Basin when the lateral is drilled, and especially during trips and connections. Sometimes the pressure and flow is difficult to control, and blowouts are certainly a risk.

Bakken oil is generally green or yellowish in color as evidenced by the shows encountered while PDC drilled the lateral in the Connolly 34-35H well in Bailey Field NE of Killdeer last fall.

Back To The Beginning

It seems that a good way to start this whole thing is by aknowledging that Hess Corp. (formerly Amerada Hess) recently was granted permit #16565 for the H. Bakken 12-07H well in sec. 12, T157N-R95W, Williams Co., a mid-Bakken horizontal well in Tioga Field. This new well is a stones throw from the Amerada Pet. Corp. H.O. Bakken #1 well that was drilled in 1953.

The reason this is particularly noteworthy is because the Bakken Formation was named in 1953 by the geologist working on the Bakken #1 well after studying the shale samples.