IPs show few surprisesPetroleum News Bakken looks at North Dakota’s 50 highest IPs of 2014 Mike Ellerd Petroleum News Bakken
With 2014 now in the history books, Petroleum News Bakken took a look back at the 24-hour initial production volumes reported during the year for Bakken petroleum system wells in North Dakota and compiled a list of the top 50 IPs (see map and table on pages 14 and 15). An evaluation of those top 50 IPs reveals few surprises.
First, it is no surprise that Statoil Oil and Gas dominated the list by bringing in 23 of the top 50 IPs, although one is a tie with Whiting Petroleum. Since Petroleum News Bakken began reporting weekly IPs in 2012, Statoil has repeatedly had wells in the top 10 IP list. In 2013, Statoil had wells on the top 10 IP list in 35 of the 47 weeks (PNB published biweekly in the first two months of 2013).
In addition, Statoil had the three highest IPs reported in 2013, all three of which were record high IPs at the time they were reported. And Statoil currently holds the record for the highest IP ever reported in North Dakota at 5,417 barrels of oil from its Beaux 18-19 7H middle Bakken well that went on production in August 2013 in the Banks field in north-central McKenzie County.
2014’s top IP While Statoil had by far the most wells among the top 50, it did not have the top IP reported in 2014 - that distinction went to Whiting Petroleum, which Whiting has long rivaled Statoil for record high IPs.
Whiting’s top 2014 IP came from a well in the Twin Valley field in McKenzie County with an IP of 4,934 barrels. And it is no surprise that the Twin Valley field borders the Banks field on the east in northeast McKenzie County.
What is perhaps a bit surprising is that the top IP for 2014 came from a Three Forks well. Of the 52 wells on the list (there are 52 because of two ties), 32 are for middle Bakken wells and the remaining 20 from Three Forks wells. More to the point, 15 of the top 18 IPs came from middle Bakken wells with just three coming from Three Forks wells.
The top five wells Right behind Whiting with its top IP of 4,934 barrels is Statoil with the No. 2 IP for the year at 4,884 barrels from a middle Bakken well also in the Banks field.
A Whiting well on the same pad as the No. 1 well - also completed in the Three Forks formation - brought in the No. 3 IP reported in 2014 of 4,523 barrels.
An XTO Energy well and yet another completed in the Three Forks formation, came in with the No. 4 IP at 4,434 barrels. That well is in the Blue Buttes field in far eastern McKenzie County. And a middle Bakken well on the same XTO pad in the Blue Buttes field brought in an IP of 4,051 barrels rounding out the top five IPs reported in 2014.
Who else and how much Also making the top 50 IP list besides Statoil with its 23 wells and Whiting, with a total of four wells on the list, are XTO Energy with seven, Oasis Petroleum with six, Halcon at four, Burlington Resources and QEP Energy with three each, and Enerplus Resources with two.
Of the 52 wells on the 2014 IP list, the top five are the only ones that produced more than 4,000 barrels in the first 24 hours of production. But 40 of the top 50 IP wells broke the 3,000 barrel mark with IPs ranging from 3,001 to 3,823 barrels. The remaining seven wells on the list had IPs just under the 3,000 barrel mark ranging from 2,970 to 2,995 barrels.
Where the wells are Additionally, it is no surprise that all 50 of the top IPs were in the deep, thermally mature “core” area of the Bakken covering southeast Williams, southwest Mountrail, northwest Dunn and northeast McKenzie counties. The top 50 IP wells are spread across 26 fields with the highest number of wells in the Camp field in north-central McKenzie County at six, followed by the neighboring Banks field in at five.
Well over half of the IPs on the list came from wells in McKenzie County at 33, followed by Williams County at nine, Dunn County at six and Mountrail County at four.
Many of the wells are on common pads with other wells on the list. In the map on page 14, the red diamonds that touch point-to-point horizontally represent common-pad wells, and there are at least 27 such wells on 12 pads accounting for more than half of the wells on the 2014 IP list.
ND’s record high IPs According to Petroleum News Bakken’s research, the three highest IPs recorded in North Dakota are 5,417, 5,387 and 5,070 barrels that came from “Beaux” wells on a Statoil pad in the Banks field. Whiting holds the fourth and fifth highest IPs at 4,971 and 4,815 barrels from two “Tarpon” wells on a common-pad in Twin Valley field.
However, including natural gas production, Statoil still holds the top IP at 7,027 barrels of oil equivalent per day from its top Beaux well (5,417 barrels of oil and 9,663 thousand feet, mcf, of gas), while one of Whiting’s Tarpon wells is second at 7,009 boepd (4,815 barrels and 13,163 mcf) based on a conversion of 6,000 cubic feet of gas per one barrel of oil equivalent. Another Statoil Beaux well ranks No. 3 overall at 6,968 boe (5,387 barrels and 9,484 mcf), No. 4 goes to another Whiting Tarpon well at 6,879 boe (4,971 barrels and 11,450 boe), and the fifth highest overall IP is held by another Statoil Beaux well at 6,860 boe (5,070 barrels and 10,738 mcf).
Why 24-hour IPs? Petroleum News Bakken is aware that there is often more utility in longer-term IPs, such as 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and even 120 days because they provide a better indication of how a well is going to perform on the longer-term. However, North Dakota only requires that operators report 24-hour IPs and, therefore, those are the only data which we can report consistently and on a regular basis.
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