Whiting Petroleum doesn’t see eye-to-eye with fellow Bakken producer Continental Resources when it comes to the possible far-reaching significance of Continental’s successful production test from the first-ever horizontal well completed in the third bench of the Three Forks.
Continental believes the Charlotte 3-22H, in North Dakota’s McKenzie County, is an important step in assessing the productivity of the lower Three Forks reservoirs.
Charlotte 3-22H is the first of 14 wells that will test three benches of the Three Forks and could lead to a substantial increase in the amount of oil Continental thinks can be recovered from the giant Bakken petroleum system.
“So they’ve drilled their well and it’s looking pretty positive there,” James T. Brown, Whiting’s president and chief operating office, told analysts at the Dec. 5 Wells Fargo Securities Energy, MLP and Pipeline conference in New York.
Well in most oil prolific area of basin
However, because the well is situated in the most oil prolific area of the Williston Basin, coupled with its own drilling experiences, Whiting concludes that Continental’s lofty expectations for the lower Three Forks are probably limited to the middle portion of the basin.
“We have tried it farther out on the edge of the basin,” Brown said. “I can’t say that we were real enthused with it.”
He said Whiting even drilled a horizontal well into the first bench of the Three Forks on its southwest Hidden Bench property.
“We did not find the encouragement we needed,” Brown added.
It’s Whiting’s view that the oil originates in the Lower Bakken shale and was forced down into the Three Forks. The Charlotte 3-22H happens to be in a deep portion of the basin, where the oil flows hotter and under higher pressure than other areas, and where more oil is generated from the shale than any other portion of the Bakken.
“In Whiting’s opinion, it’s not going to work everywhere, but it definitely could work out in the middle part of the basin,” Brown said.
Nevertheless, “We’re going to be keeping an eye on what they do because it could become something. And we wish them all the luck in the world.”
—Petroleum News Bakken
