In an Aug. 2 conference discussing second-quarter financial and operating results, Southwestern Energy Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President William Way said the company had concluded testing of its second Bakken well and added that the company was disappointed with the test results and plans were to move on to opportunities in other plays. However, Way did not provide any further details on the Bakken wells.
There is no record of any recent Southwestern Energy activity in North Dakota according to North Dakota Industrial Commission Department of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Division records.
In Montana, however, Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation records indicate that Southwestern Energy has four wells registered in the state. One of the wells was a dry well drilled in Stillwater County in south-central Montana that was plugged and abandoned in 2004.
The other three wells are all identified as being in Sheridan County in the far northeastern corner of the state. One of those three Sheridan County wells was permitted in 1985 but never drilled and the permit expired.
A third Southwestern Energy well in Sheridan County is an existing vertical Red River well that Southwestern took over from Newfield Production Co. in April and then filed an intent to recomplete and test the well in the Nisku, Three Forks and Bakken formations. A pre-frack Bakken sundry notice was filed in June but no production data are posted.
The fourth well is Southwestern Energy’s single-lateral Bedwell 33-52 1-1H in the Elm Coulee Northeast field in central Sheridan County. That well went on production in late September 2013, and through May produced a total of 9,942 barrels of oil over 204 days of pumping for an average output of 48.74 barrels per day.
Petroleum News Bakken did not hear back from Southwestern Energy on requests for additional information regarding test results from the two Bakken wells.
During the Aug. 2 conference call, Steven Mueller, Southwestern Energy’s chief executive officer, president and director, said the company strongly believes in its exploration component and will continue doing exploration, but added not all projects are successful. “And you’ll have some projects that work and you’ll have some projects that don’t seem are going to work,” Mueller said, and added that for Southwestern Energy, the Bakken was in the latter category.
Southwestern was one of four oil and gas companies that completed wells in the western half of Sheridan County in the last two years, per state of Montana records.
The others companies are Sagebrush Resources II LLC, Northern Oil Production Inc. and Whiting Oil and Gas Corp. (part of Whiting Petroleum).
—Mike Ellerd
