Welcome to the first annual edition of The Bakken Explorers magazine, brought to you by Petroleum News Bakken, a weekly newspaper that covers oil and gas activity in the Bakken petroleum system of the Williston Basin.
It will be the can-do attitudes of the basin’s explorers that continue to break the technological, geological and economic barriers, keeping the Bakken’s oil and gas production growing, and then stable, for decades to come.
Our only regret is that we were not able, for various reasons, to feature all the explorers in this first issue, but we did get the “greats,” such as Slawson Exploration, Continental Resources and Whiting Petroleum.
The first criteria we used to qualify the selected companies was that the information had to be backed by public disclosure, either well completion filings with government agencies or statements made by the company or its partners in conjunction with stock market reports.
Most importantly, however, explorers had to be working to extend the Bakken petroleum system’s recoverable oil reserves in one or more of three ways:
1. Exploring laterally by testing the fringe of the known productive Bakken petroleum system;
2. Exploring vertically by evaluating relatively unproduced formations or formation zones in the Bakken system, such as the upper Bakken shale member and the second, third and fourth benches of the Three Forks; or
3. Looking to increase producible reserves by developing and utilizing new technology — preferably technology used in combination with 1 and 2 above.
Nominations for E&P companies for next year’s magazine — and, of course, for potential articles in Petroleum News Bakken — are always welcome.
They should be sent to Kay Cashman at [email protected] or Mike Ellerd at [email protected].
Photos and other possible art for the next edition of The Bakken Explorers should be sent to Marti Reeve at [email protected].
Finally, thank you to the advertisers who helped support the magazine this year, with the intention of saluting those E&P companies helping to ensure the future of the oil industry in the Williston Basin.
Cheers,
Kay Cashman, publisher & executive editor
Marti Reeve, special publications director
