Monday, January 28, 2008

It's The Fault's Fault

If you recall my discussion of the importance of faults in enhancing natural fracturing in the Murphy Creek area last May, it is theorized that faults serve as a conduit for fluids to migrate along the fault. Those fluids would then dissolve the salt deposits below the Bakken causing the overlying formations, including the Bakken to collapse, which obviously would greatly enhance the fractures.

I theorized (
along with probably untold others) that such a collapse area existed in the Murphy Creek area in west central Dunn Co. due to the presence of the Heart River Fault in the area (one of the few major faults in the Basin), and also because of the anomaly uncovered during the drilling of the Adobe Killdeer Federal wildcat well in 1981. That well almost blew out when it encountered what appeared to be a fracture in the lower Lodgepole.

This fracture system has apparently been confirmed by the first Marathon well to be drilled in the area, th
e Hecker 21-5H, sec. 5, 144N-96W in Dunn Co., which was drilled last year about a mile and a half west of the Adobe well. The Marathon well hit the same "fracture" in the lower Lodgepole at almost the same sub sea depth (6 ft. difference) as was found in the Adobe well. The company ran logs to see what was up with the huge increase in gas and oil shows, but they didn't show any comparable reservoir properties. It was then theorized that the shows were sourced from a "large fracture system below it." The Hecker well was completed for almost 400 bbls/day calculated as an average for seven days of production. Marathon has since drilled two other wells directly offsetting the Hecker well and has more planned.

Indications are that there may be some high volume producers in this area where the fracture system is more extensive or better developed. It's something worth watc
hing to see how it all pans out.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you talking about the Tracker Resources well in section 4, 144n 97w ? You wrote previously about the low spot in 144n 97w.

Anonymous said...

THOMAS 4-1H that well is looking good too. It has just been completed and there's definetly been some oil tankers moving out of there.

Anonymous said...

I think it is the same well

Anonymous said...

No The hecker well is 5 miles east of the tracker well.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Larry & Teegue for info on confidential dates. I am curious as to why some wells are confidential and some not. Seems like it would be hard to keep information a secret.

Teegue said...

Yeah, the entire immediate Murphy Creek area certainly appears to have the potential of having enhanced fracturing, but only the drill bit can confirm that. I don't have any info about the Tracker well except they were planning on using a stage frac whereas Marathon wasn't (isn't?). Tracker also has an offset planned but hasn't gotten a drilling permit yet.

Andy, confidential status is usually designated by the operator when they apply for a drilling permit or if not at that time, at any later time during the six month period. Dry hole status isn't hard to discover, but production info is a little different unless you want to count tanker trucks coming and going 24/7. The entire tight hole concept doesn't really apply to a play like this were everything is leased. It's real usefulness is for the company to pickup additional leases around a wildcat discovery well before info gets out and prices get out of control. It really has no place in field development situations, but hey, if it's available, why not use it.

Anonymous said...

Confidential status is what allowed EOG to lease most of the lands in Parshall, Shell, Wayzetta, and Austin Townships without the other oil companies knowing EOG had found the motherlode in May 2006.

Anonymous said...

"Yeah, the entire immediate Murphy Creek area certainly appears to have the potential of having enhanced fracturing, but only the drill bit can confirm that"

What about geochemical signatures? Can they not provide strong evidence of fractures?