Prompted by an inquiry from a reader, Petroleum News Bakken has looked into five wells that Dallas-based independent Breitling Oil and Gas Corp. says have been drilled in North Dakota. Petroleum News Bakken, however, can find no evidence that any of the wells exist, at least not under the names that Breitling has used to identify the wells in postings on its website.
The issue arose when the reader said Breitling had posted press releases on its website announcing progress on the drilling of two of the company’s wells in Mountrail and Williams counties which were identified as the Breitling-Pumpkin Ridge #2H and #3H wells, respectively. The reader couldn’t find any evidence that the wells actually exist.
Petroleum News Bakken found that the first Breitling posting on the Pumpkin Ridge wells was on Oct. 29, 2012 in which the company indicated that the Pumpkin Ridge #2H well had been spud on Oct. 20, 2012. In a subsequent posting dated Dec. 16, 2012, Breitling indicated the well had been drilled to a total depth of approximately 10,500 feet with a lateral extending another 9,000 feet through the “prolific Bakken Shale,” to a total measured depth, or TMD, of 19,500 feet. The title of that posting suggested the well was being or was to be fracked.
Then on Jan. 11, 2013, Breitling posted a press release announcing that the Pumpkin Ridge #3H had been drilled in Williams County. As with the Pumpkin Ridge #2H well in Mountrail County, the Pumpkin Ridge #3H was also said to have been drilled to a depth of approximately 10,500 feet with a lateral extending 9,000 feet into the Bakken formation for another TMD of 19,500 feet.
Later, on Mar. 6, 2013, Breitling posted another press release on its website repeating the announcement that the first well, the Pumpkin Ridge #2H well, had been drilled into the “Bakken Shale” at a TMD of 19,500 feet. Three of the postings contain hundreds of aerial photographs of well pads during drilling and fracking operations.
Petroleum News Bakken searched the online database of the Oil and Gas Division of the North Dakota Industrial Commission Department of Mineral Resources but could find no record of either of the Breitling Pumpkin Ridge wells. In fact, the only well on the Oil and Gas Division’s well inventory with the term “Pumpkin” in the name is the Pumpkin 148-93-14C-13H TF, which is an Enerplus-operated well in the South Fork field in northern Dunn County that was spud on April 23, 2013.
In addition, Breitling does not appear in the Oil and Gas Division’s database as an operator. Consequently, if Breitling is involved in any wells in North Dakota, it is as a non-operating partner, but information on non-operating partners is not required by the Oil and Gas Division.
Petroleum News Bakken spoke with Alison Ritter, public information officer for the Oil and Gas Division, and Ritter confirmed that Breitling is not an operator in North Dakota. Ritter also confirmed that there is no record in the division’s files of any Pumpkin Ridge wells.
Breitling’s Big Caesar #1H well
Petroleum News Bakken then searched further into Breitling’s website and found three more wells that the company claims were drilled in North Dakota but for which no records exist on the Oil and Gas Division’s online database.
In an April 22, 2012 posting, Breitling announced that its Big Caesar #1H well had been drilled in Mountrail County to a depth of approximately 10,500 feet with a 9,000-foot lateral in the Bakken Shale for another TMD of approximately 19,500 feet. However, nearly two months later Breitling announced in a June 18 posting that the Big Caesar #1H well was spud on May 18, contradicting the April 22 posting announcing the well had already been drilled. That posting identified the Big Caesar #1H well as the company’s first horizontal well in its “Big Caesar horizontal Middle Bakken and Three Forks development prospect.” The June 18 posting also indicated the Big Caesar #1H would be drilled to a TMD of 19,710 feet, and added that Breitling anticipated the well would reach TMD in “about 39 days.”
Then in an Aug. 7, 2012 posting, Breitling announced the Big Caesar #1H well had been drilled to a TMD of approximately 19,500 feet, also contradicting the April 22 posting that indicated the well had already been drilled. Two days later in an Aug. 9 posting, the company suggested the well was being, or was to be, fracked.
In the mean time, in a posting dated June 6, 2012, Breitling indicated “operations” of the Big Caesar #1H well as being assigned to EOG Resources. However, as with the Pumpkin Ridge wells, Petroleum News Bakken was not able to find evidence of any “Big Caesar” wells in the North Dakota Oil and Gas Division’s database, including all wells operated by EOG Resources in North Dakota. Furthermore, EOG Resources told Petroleum News Bakken that it is not familiar with the Big Caesar #1H well and is not the well’s operator.
Another Big Caesar well
In another April 22, 2012 posting, Breitling announced that the Big Caesar #2H well had been drilled in Divide County. The posting indicated the Big Caesar #2H was also drilled to a depth of approximately 10,500 feet with a 9,000-foot lateral into the Bakken Shale for still another TMD of approximately 19,500 feet. That announcement also suggested the well was being or had been fracked.
In a subsequent posting, dated July 3, 2012, Breitling announced that the Big Caesar #2H had been spud on June 28, 2012, over two months after the posting indicating the well had already been drilled. The July 3 announcement also stated that the Big Caesar #2H “is the first horizontal well in Breitling’s Big Caesar horizontal Middle Bakken and Three Forks development prospect,” the same statement made about the Big Caesar #1H well on June 18, 2012.
As with the Big Caesar #1H well, Petroleum News Bakken was not able to find any evidence of the Big Caesar #2H well in the Oil and Gas Division’s database.
Yet another unidentified well
In the Oct. 29, 2012, posting announcing the Pumpkin Ridge #2H well, Breitling indicated that Pumpkin Ridge #2H was the company’s second horizontal Middle Bakken/Three Forks well. A search of Breitling’s website did not reveal a third “Pumpkin Ridge” well, but the search did find that Breitling announced in a Feb. 19, 2012 posting that its Big Horn #1H well had been drilled in Williams County, again to a depth approximately 10,500 feet with a 9,000-foot lateral extending through the “Bakken Shale.”
As with the Pumpkin Ridge wells, Petroleum News Bakken could find no evidence of the Big Horn #1H well in the Oil and Gas Division’s online database. The only well on the Oil and Gas Division’s well inventory with “big” and “horn” in the well name is Sinclair’s Bighorn 1-6H well in Dunn County.
Breitling’s response
Petroleum News Bakken sent several inquiries to Breitling informing the company that none of the Pumpkin, Big Horn or Big Caesar wells could be found in the Oil and Gas Division’s database. Petroleum News Bakken asked that if operators used different names for the wells, would Breitling provide those names so that Petroleum News Bakken could find the wells in the database. Breitling Chief Executive Officer Chris Faulkner responded saying in an e-mail that “All of these wells are on confidential status and no data will be released.”
However, according to Ritter, when a well is permitted in North Dakota, it is given a North Dakota Industrial Commission file number and an American Petroleum Institute, or API, number, and those numbers, along with other basic information, are available to the public on the division’s website.
“Even if a well is listed on confidential status, we still make available the file number, API number, legal location of the well, well name, operator name, spud date and any run (sale) information,” she said.
Ritter noted that most operators request confidential status at the time of permitting. In those situations, all data on the well, with the exception of the basic information, are not released to the public for a period of six months beginning at the date of spud. According to the various spud and drill dates provided by Breitling on its website, all of the Pumpkin Ridge, Big Horn and Big Caesar wells are past the six-month confidential period.
Petroleum News Bakken informed Breitling of the fact that even if the wells were on confidential status, there would still be a record of the wells on the Oil and Gas Division’s website, and no such record exists for the Breitling wells. Breitling had not responded as of mid-day July 10.
Stay tuned.
