The Mythical Price Report (Deservably) Under Fire

"Unfortunately, in many instances, we are still trying to explain and defend our assessment versus the inappropriate and irresponsible posting of Dr. Price's 'draft report,'" Pollastro told Cybercast News Service.

Full story from Cybercast

I guess I'm really not surprised that this story didn't get any play in the big time media, but what Richard Pollastro, the USGS Bakken Formation task leader, had to say makes sense. I've never seen so much credibility given to an unpublished and non-peer reviewed scientific report in my life. "[I]nappropriate and irresponsible" pretty much sums it up.

Larry's County Production Figures

Larry provided the following commentary and production chart:

While there is a lot of media attention being given to the Bakken Formation in North Dakota, Mountrail County is the true center of activity. Here is a county by county list of oil production in North Dakota for December 2007 and March 2008.

Mountrail County is now the second largest producing county in the state. If all goes well, Mountrial County should become the largest producing county in North Dakota by December 2008.

	March	December
	2008	2007	Change
BILLINGS	385,086	396,876	-11,790
BOTTINEAU	142,709	148,531	-5,822
BOWMAN	1,484,699	1,542,661	-57,962
BURKE	92,552	82,064	10,488
DIVIDE	72,431	77,625	-5,194
DUNN	328,360	251,833	76,527
GOLDEN VALLEY	57,025	56,222	803
HETTINGER	0	0	0
MCHENRY	2,482	2,339	143
MCKENZIE	576,410	564,966	11,444
MCLEAN	3,184	3,115	69
MOUNTRAIL	661,047	423,683	237,364
RENVILLE	65,728	67,124	-1,396
SLOPE	35,792	38,004	-2,212
STARK	126,009	132,059	-6,050
WARD	4,414	4,286	128
WILLIAMS	419,510	425,330	-5,820
TOTALS	4,457,438	4,216,718	240,720

Must See TV

A new series starts Wednesday night on TruTV about roughnecks in West Texas that looks promising.

Yours truly threw that chain more than a few times back in the day, but still has all his fingers and teeth. Poor Peanut. Ha. (See second video)

Black Gold TruTV site

Why Oil Prices Will Tank

CNN/Forune

Peak Reportedly Finds Big Well, NE Dunn Co.

According to the latest edition of edition of The Rocky Mountain Oil Journal, it is reported that Peak has a significant discovery on the Ft. Berthold Reservation in Dunn Co. An abridged version of the article follows:

Peak Has Indicated Discovery Within Fort Berthold Reservation-Dunn County North Dakota

It appears that Colorado based Peak North Dakota LLC. (PND) first wildcat drilled within North Dakota’s Bakken play will result in a discovery. With all information being held tight, according to sources the Tekakwitha #9-24H se-sw 9-149n-93w Dunn County is producing at rates comparable to those wells in Parshall Field, around a 1000 bopd. This flow rate is reportedly after fracture stimulation. To add credence to these reports, the company has requested temporary spacing to develop this new field discovery at the upcoming North Dakota Hearings set for June 25^th. More details about this producer are expected to come out of this hearing. Parshall Field, North Dakota’s largest Bakken oil pool found to date within the state, locates about 15 miles to the northeast of PND’s indicated discovery and is averaging 500,000 barrels of oil per month from 34 reporting wells. This field, which is still under aggressive exploitation, currently has 12 rigs turning to the right and continues to expand.

This new producer by PND locates about locates about a mile northeast of Mandaree Field, an abandoned Madison oil pool that has produced over 157 k bo and 146 mmcfg. Its of interest that prior to the discovery of Madison production in 1990, Shell Oil drilled a Bakken discovery that opened up Mandaree Field at the Packineau BIA #12-17 sw-nw 17-149n-93w. Drilled to a total depth of 15,225’, this test bottomed in the Cambrian Deadwood. Shell did attempt to complete this hole in both the Red River at 14,047’ and the Winnipeg @ 14,823 with no success. The company plugged back and opened up the vertical section of the Bakken from 10,795’-10,805’ and gave this zone an IPP of 35 bopd 27 mcfgpd and 17 bwpd. This zone only produced a total of 803 bopd, 35 mcfg and 153 bw prior to plugging in 1982.

Another deep test drilled in this vicinity is two miles to the northwest at a Red River failure operated by EP Operating at the Two Crow #1-5 sw-ne 5-149n-93w. Drilled to the Ordovician to a depth of 14,300’, this wildcat was plugged in 1988. The company did test the Bakken interval from 10,770’-10,918’ in which 1,010’ of gas cut mud was recovered with the sampler containing 2.43 cfg and a trace of mud. No production casing was run and the test was plugged in 1988.

Content courtesy RMOJ.com