Petroleum News Bakken has taken a look back over the weekly 10 highest 24-hour initial production rates, IPs, for active, non-confidential North Dakota Bakken petroleum system wells as reported by the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Division for 2013, and in that review PNB found that Statoil Oil and Gas dominated the top 24-hour IPs for the year.
Taking the top 24-hour IP data from each of the 47 weekly Top 10 IP lists (PNB went from publishing biweekly to weekly in March), and tabulating them from the highest weekly top IP to the lowest for the year (see chart), PNB found that Statoil had the highest three top weekly IPs for the year, and that among the 10 highest weekly IPs for 2013, six were from Statoil wells. In addition, Statoil’s top three 2013 IPs were record-high North Dakota IPs.
Furthermore, Statoil wells topped the weekly Top 10 list 19 times in the 47 weeks it was compiled, more than any other operator making the list. Also, Statoil wells made the weekly Top 10 list in 35 of the 47 weeks the list was compiled and ended up the year with a total of 96 wells making the list.
The top weekly high IP for the year was from Statoil’s Beaux 18-19 7H well in the Banks field in north-central McKenzie County just south of Lake Sakakawea with an IP of 5,417 barrels of oil per day. The second and third highest weekly IPs were from wells on the same pad, those being Statoil’s Beaux 18-19 4H and Beaux 18-19 6H wells which had 24-hour IPs of 5,387 and 5,070 bpd, respectively.
Overall, Statoil’s 19 top 10 IPs ranged from a low of 1,908 bpd to the record high of 5,417 bpd with an average of 3,951 bpd. The 47 highest weekly IPs averaged 3,512 bpd for the year.
Other operators topping the lists
Burlington Resources came in with the weekly high IP 14 times in 2013, putting the ConocoPhillips subsidiary second behind Statoil in terms of topping the list (see chart). However, Burlington made the Top 10 list 37 times throughout 2013, two more times than Statoil, and had a total of 77 wells on the Top 10 list over the course of the year. Burlington’s top IPs ranged from 2,444 bpd to 3,880 bpd with an average of 3,046 bpd.
Oasis Petroleum topped the Top 10 IP list on six separate occasions in 2013, and among the 10 highest weekly IPs for the year, two belong to Oasis. The company’s Sully 5200 11-30B well in the Camp field, which borders the Banks field in north-central McKenzie County, had an IP of 4,489, and its Casey 5200 13-30B well, also in the camp field, had the eighth highest weekly top 10 IP of 4,341 bpd. The other four Oasis wells that topped the weekly Top 10 list in 2013 ranged from 3,049 bpd to the 3,581 bpd. The company’s six 2013 list-topping wells averaged 3,642 bpd. In addition, Oasis made the Top 10 list in 23 of the 47 weeks with a total of 38 wells.
Whiting Oil and Gas had the top IP twice during 2013. Its Tarpon Federal 21-3-3H set a new record high IP of 4,971 bpd in late January which ended up as the fourth highest weekly IP for the year. The Tarpon Federal 21-3-3H well is in the Twin Valley field, which also borders the Banks field in north-central McKenzie County. Whiting made the Top 10 list a total of 19 times in 2013 and ended the year with 30 wells making the list.
Rounding out the 10 highest weekly IPs for 2013 was Murex Petroleum’s Albert Skari 35-26H well, which topped the Top IP list for the week of July 2-8 with a 24-hour IP of 4,125 bpd. That well is in the Sandrocks field, also in northern McKenzie County.
Other operators that came in with weekly high IPs in 2013 were QEP Energy, Halcon Resources subsidiary HRC Operating, Newfield Production, Kodiak Oil and Gas and EOG Resources (see chart).
For the 47 top IPs Petroleum News Bakken tabulated in 2013, 36 were from wells in McKenzie County, five were in Williams County, and two each were in Dunn, Mountrail and Stark counties. The 10 highest weekly IP wells are all clustered in northern McKenzie County in the Banks, Camp, Sandrocks and Twin Valley fields.
Why track 24-hour IPs?
Because of operational constraints that often occur within the first 24 hours of a well going on production, the 24-hour IP may not be the best indicator of a well’s long-term performance. Consequently, many operators pay more attention to the 30-day, 60-day and 90-day production rates.
The longer-term metrics provide more data and can more accurately adjust for short-term anomalies that can occur in production data as wells are brought fully onto long-term production. Furthermore, there are Bakken wells which have had high 24-hour IPs but sharp decline curves, and, conversely, there are many highly productive Bakken wells in North Dakota that didn’t have high 24-hour IPs but do have flat production curves and correspondingly high cumulative oil production volumes.
The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Division does however, require operators to file 24-hour IPs with the state. Consequently, the 24-hour IP is a metric that can be consistently and accurately tracked. Those data are readily available through the Oil and Gas Division’s online database.
