Whiting Petroleum is projecting a huge surge in second quarter production as deployment of new well completion techniques in the Williston Basin begin to bear fruit.
Meanwhile, production test results from the company’s latest completion design utilizing coil tubing, unveiled during a May 1 conference call with industry analysts, were even greater than from the heralded and transformational cement liners method now being widely deployed by Whiting in the basin.
Production to jump 9 percent
Whiting is forecasting second quarter 2014 production of up to 108,791 boepd, a nearly 9 percent increase over first quarter 2014 production of 100,065 boepd.
Of the total, 73,325 boepd or about three fourths of production in the first quarter came from the Williston Basin, where Whiting has been busy drilling, testing and deploying new completion techniques, especially cement liners and plug-and-perf technology, and shortening the distance between wells, known as high-density drilling or downspacing.
The company noted in March during its fourth-quarter 2013 operations and earnings call that in tests at its Missouri Breaks, Pronghorn and Hidden Bench fields, the new completion method had delivered 50 to 75 percent productivity increases in 30, 60 and 90 day well production rates.
Increasing well yields
New technologies have actually served to increase Whiting’s estimated average lifetime yield for a Bakken well to the upper end of its original 400,000-600,000 boe production curve.
“It varies by area … but it looks like you’re seeing that kind of an increase across the board in each area,” James J. Volker, Whiting’s chairman and chief executive officer, said during the recent call to discuss company operations and earnings for the 2014 first quarter.
Whiting had hoped to enter 2014 with a bigger production bang, but instead continued to face delays as it, along with other area operators, battled one of the worst winters on record. Still, the new completion technologies helped to keep Whiting’s first quarter 2014 production of 100,065 boepd at least relatively flat with fourth quarter 2013 output of 100,965 boepd, the company indicated.
Moreover, Whiting delivered impressive production numbers when compared to last year’s first quarter. Overall production of 100,065 boepd was up 12 percent from 89,135 boepd in 2013 first quarter, while Williston Basin output of 73,325 boepd was up a whopping 27 percent from 57,785 boepd in last year’s first quarter.
Successful test results
Known as “coiled tubing conveyed fracturing,” Whiting’s latest completion design and successful test results generated a lot of interest among analysts on the May 1 call.
“How many more of these do you have planned?” said John Freeman, an analyst with Raymond James & Associates Inc. “And how many would you need to see before you’d be convinced that this is the way to go?”
Coiled tubing conveyed fracturing was tested at the company’s Skov 31-28 unit in early April at the Missouri Breaks field of North Dakota and Montana, and “delivered very strong initial results,” Volker said.
He said Whiting drilled three new Bakken wells in order to compare three separate completion designs. The original well in the unit, the Skov 31-28-1H, was completed using the older sleeve technology in May 2013, and flowed at 927 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Early in April Whiting completed two new wells in the unit using cement liners with an increased number of entry points. These wells, the Skov 31-28-2H and the Skov 31-28-4H, flowed at increased IP rates of 1,072 boepd and 1,219 boepd, respectively.
Completion ups output 73 percent
In early April, the company also completed the Skov 31-28-3H, with the new coiled tubing fracture stimulation method. This well flowed at 1,607 boepd, 73 percent higher than the initial well in the unit and 40 percent higher than the two cement liner wells (see slide).
“This new completion design better isolates the perforations to more effectively fracture the reservoir,” Volker explained, adding that costs are comparable “because there are no plugs to drill out.”
Though still an experiment with “a couple of kinks we’ve got to work out,” he added, coiled tubing conveyed fracturing “is still a big step forward for us.”
“I really can’t see any reason why this wouldn’t be very widely applicable,” he said. “It really allows us to get more entry points in all these tight rocks. I think the main thing here is we’ve been on the hunt to find technologies that can get us more entry points — more reliable entry points.”
More coiled tubing wells planned
Volker said more coiled tubing conveyed frack wells are planned for the Williston Basin, as well as for the company’s emerging Niobrara Redtail play in Colorado. He referred to the Niobrara as “a Whiting within Whiting,” to highlight the play’s increasing significance to the company compared to the Bakken petroleum system, where Whiting is a major producer.
In a keynote address in April to the Independent Petroleum Association of America, Volker raised eyebrows when he declared that Whiting’s Redtail prospect near Denver contained more than twice the in-place oil per drilling spacing unit as North Dakota’s Bakken system.
Production from the Redtail field averaged 4,550 boepd in the first quarter of 2014, a 41 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2013. The company is expected to dramatically increase Redtail production by the end of this year. Three rigs are currently working in the field, and the company plans to add another rig during the second half of the year.
Whiting changes Sanish plan
Back in the Williston Basin, Whiting said that based on strong initial results from high density pilot programs in its flagship Sanish field, Mountrail County, North Dakota, the company decided to launch a development drilling program on a nine-well per unit pattern in the Middle Bakken formation, versus its original plan of three to four wells per 1,280-acre spacing unit.
In the Hidden Bench field, McKenzie County, North Dakota, Whiting said its cemented liner completion method produced strong results during this year’s first quarter. The 15 wells completed using this method had an average IP rate of 2,643 boepd, the company said.
In the Cassandra field, Williams County, North Dakota, Whiting said it used cemented liner completions on three wells. The Kaldahl 11-3H was completed in the Middle Bakken on April 1, flowing 1,930 boepd, 104 percent higher than the 10 prior wells completed in the Middle Bakken. The Olson 14-31TFH was completed in the Three Forks formation on March 14, flowing 1,375 boepd. The Sheldon 11-6 TFH was completed in the Three Forks on March 15, flowing 1,243 boepd. These wells produced at average IP rates 38 percent higher than the 10 prior wells completed in the Middle Bakken, the company said.
Company revenues jump
Meanwhile, Whiting reported 2014 first quarter net income of $109.07 million on revenues of $740.25 million, compared to net income of $86.24 million on revenues of $613.37 million for the first quarter of 2013.
