Oasis Petroleum filed applications that the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation will consider during hearings in Billings on May 1 asking the board to create multiple new temporary drill spacing units, DSUs, and allow the drilling of additional wells on a number of permanent spacing units, all in Elm Coulee Northeast field along the North Dakota border in eastern Roosevelt County. Under Montana rules, operators are initially granted temporary DSUs but after wells go on production, operators must request that the board change spacing unit status to permanent for ongoing production.
Oasis, which ranks as Montana’s second largest Bakken producer (see page 6), is asking the board to create two overlapping 3,840-acre and six overlapping temporary 1,280-acre spacing units, all encompassing 24 contiguous sections in the field. Oasis wants to drill one horizontal Bakken/Three Forks formation well between existing permanent spacing units in each of eight new temporary overlapping units. Within those same 24 contiguous sections, Oasis is seeking authorization to drill up to five additional horizontal Bakken/Three Forks wells in six existing permanent 1,280-acre spacing units.
In addition, Oasis is asking the board to make permanent a temporary 1,280-acre DSU in the Sioux Pass field in northeast Richland and southeast Roosevelt counties for production of an existing Bakken/Three Forks well. Production data for that well are not yet available. Oasis is also seeking authorization to drill up to six additional horizontal Bakken/Three forks wells on that spacing unit.
Continental following suit
The board will also consider requests by Continental Resources to make permanent 10 separate temporary spacing units where the company has producing wells. Montana’s largest Bakken producer (see page XX) is also seeking authorization to increase well densities on five of those spacing units.
In Richland County, Continental Resources is asking the board to grant permanent status to four temporary overlapping 2,560s, four temporary 1,280s and one 640-acre unit spread across the Elm Coulee field for the production of oil and gas from one well on each unit. According to the board’s database, seven of those nine wells have produced oil since they first went on production in December 2013. Through February, those seven wells were on production between 23 and 49 days with a 36-day average. The average daily output of those seven wells ranged from 85 to 467 barrels per day with an overall average of 220 bpd and an average water cut of 38 percent. Six of the seven wells produced natural gas during the period and those wells had an average gas-to-oil ratio, GOR, of 403 cubic feet of natural gas per barrel of oil, cfb.
In the Elm Coulee Northeast field in Roosevelt County, Continental is seeking permanent status for another temporary 1,280-acre DSU on which it has a well that went on production in February and over 10 days of production averaged 352 barrels of oil with a 59 percent water cut. Over that 10-day period, that well did not produce any gas according to data posted by the board.
Continental is also seeking authorization to drill up to three additional wells on the four Richland County 1,280s and up to four additional wells on the 1,280 in Roosevelt County.
Slawson also seeks permanent units
Slawson Exploration wants permanent status for eight 640-acre DSUs in the Elm Coulee field in Richland County. One of those wells is a dual-lateral well with one lateral targeting the middle Bakken and the other targeting the upper Bakken shale. That well went on production in May 2013 and through February produced 9,314 barrels over 216 days of production for an average daily output of 43 bpd with a 72 percent water cut and a GOR of 145 cfb. Another of the wells went on production in December 2013 and through February had averaged 16 bpd with a 56 percent water cut and a 306 cfb GOR.
The remaining six wells went on production between April 2012 and April 2013, and through February produced between 303 and 428 days averaging 316 days on production. Those six wells have produced between 14 and 117 bpd with an average production of 64 bpd with an average 55 percent water cut and a 206 cfb average GOR.
Other Montana Bakken activity
EOG Resources wants permanent status for two temporary 1,280-acre units in the Elm Coulee Northeast field in Roosevelt County for production from one existing Bakken well on each. One of the wells went on production in January 2013 and through February 2014 averaged 288 barrels per day with a 65 percent water cut and a 656 cfb GOR. The other well went on production in March 2013 and through February averaged 322 bpd with a 62 percent water cut and a GOR of 769 cfb. EOG is also seeking authorization from the board to drill one additional horizontal Bakken/Three Forks well on each of the spacing units.
ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy, Montana’s third largest Bakken producer, is asking the board to make permanent a 1,280-acre unit in the Elm Coulee field in Richland County for production from two Bakken wells on that unit that went on production in February. One of the wells averaged 271 bpd over 10 days in February with a 68 percent water cut and a 1,030 cfb GOR. The other well produced for 23 days in February averaging 98 bpd with a 72 percent water cut and a 686 cfb GOR.
Whiting Oil and Gas, the fifth largest Bakken producer in Montana, filed applications seeking approval to drill between three and four horizontal Bakken/Three Forks wells on three temporary 1,280-acre and three temporary 1,920-acre DSUs in the Elm Coulee Northeast field in Richland County.
Statoil Oil and Gas is seeking permanent status for a 1,280-acre unit for production from a wildcat Bakken/Three Forks formation well in Roosevelt County. Production data for that well are not yet available. Statoil is also seeking authorization to drill up to four additional wells on that spacing unit.
True Oil LLC is asking that the board make permanent a 1,280-acre unit in the Elm Coulee Northeast field in Richland County. A well on that unit went on production in December 2013 and through February produced 11,285 barrels over 23 days on production for an average of 491 bpd with a 39 percent water cut and a GOR of 1.15 cfb.
