Bakken Explorers 2014: Pushing Bakken limitsSlawson Exploration moves into its fifth decade as a leader in exploring the Bakken petroleum system Mike Ellerd Petroleum News Bakken
As a privately held company, Slawson Exploration maintains a low profile in its development of its Williston Basin resources, or at least it tries to. After some 40 years of using successful innovative technologies to develop some of the most challenging formations in the basin, Slawson is well-known and well-respected in the industry and has earned a reputation as a leading Bakken explorer.
From its earliest days of drilling conventional Red River wells in Roosevelt County, Mont., in the early 1970s, to drilling its first horizontal Bakken well in 1989, its more recent exploration of the upper Bakken shale and the False Bakken, and its current middle Bakken and Three Forks development in the Stockyard Creek field in Williams County, N.D., Slawson has always been a leader when it comes pushing the limits of exploration.
The family-owned, Wichita-based independent was founded in 1957 by geologist Donald Slawson. In the late 1980s, Slawson drilled its first horizontal well in the Williston Basin into the Bakken formation in the Ash Coulee area in northern Billings County, N.D. According to Slawson, when that well was tested in February 1990, it came in with a then record-setting initial production rate of 1,362 barrels per day. Since then, Slawson Exploration has evolved into “an aggressive exploration firm” active in 10 western states and now led by Donald Slawson’s son Todd.
In the Williston Basin, Slawson is an innovator in exploring the vertical and horizontal extents of the Bakken petroleum system using both state-of-the-art technologies and state-of-the-art ideas, and also is one of the top oil producers in the basin.
While most of Slawson’s Bakken activity is in the mature region of the Bakken petroleum system in southwest Mountrail County, N.D., the company is known for exploring farther out into the fringes of the Bakken system in both North Dakota and Montana, targeting the middle Bakken dolomite, as well as pioneering exploration in the upper Bakken shale and what has come to be known as the False Bakken.
Upper Bakken shale When Slawson first began drilling into the upper Bakken shale in the late 1980s and early 1990s it drilled some un-stimulated test wells in the Billings Nose region of southwest North Dakota, albeit with limited success. Slawson continued exploring the upper shale into the mid-2000s drilling un-stimulated wells in the Mondak area that lies south of the Elm Coulee field in eastern Richland County, Mont., and extends east into western McKenzie County, N.D. Those wells had low initial production rates but flat curves with high estimated ultimate recoveries.
In 2007 and 2008, Slawson drilled two upper Bakken shale wells in the Squaw Gap field near the Montana border in southwest McKenzie County, N.D. Still producing through December 2013, one of those wells produced a total of 185,223 barrels averaging 81 bpd, and the other produced 100,121 barrels through January 2014 averaging 48 bpd.
In the Elm Coulee field in western Richland County, Mont., Slawson drilled a series of test wells in the upper Bakken shale in 2012 and 2013. Four of those wells went on production between July 2012 and February 2013, and through January 2014 had been on production between 323 and 514 days with daily production averaging between 59 and 197 barrels per day.
Closer to the North Dakota border in southeastern Richland County, Slawson drilled another upper Bakken shale well that went on production in January 2013. Through January 2014, that well was on production for 363 days averaging 76 bpd.
First in the False Bakken In August 2012, Slawson began producing from a well believed to be the first successfully completed well in the False Bakken. Although an organic-rich limestone, the False Bakken often appeared very similar to, and was sometimes confused with, the upper Bakken shale during drilling, and drillers eventually coined the term “false” Bakken. While it was known to be organic-rich, nobody appeared to be interested in exploring it - except Slawson.
Slawson’s first False Bakken well, in far western Richland County, Mont., went on production in August 2012, and in the first 46 days of production averaged 127 bpd. Through January 2014, that well had produced 18,190 barrels over 487 days of production for an average of 37 bpd. While not chart-topping, Slawson did show that a well in that formation could be economic.
Overcoming drilling challenges Drilling horizontally through shale poses certain risks, most notably the tendency for the shale to collapse. Slawson, however, found it could successfully drill horizontally through the upper Bakken shale by using shorter laterals.
Fracture stimulating multilateral wells in the shale proved problematic, and many operators simply drill single-lateral wells in the shale. Slawson, however, showed multilateral wells in the upper shale could be successfully fracture-stimulated; one of the four upper shale wells it drilled in western Richland County was a dual-lateral well with one sidetrack, and it is the well that averaged 197 bpd over 323 days of production through January 2014.
Stockyard Creek In 2013 Slawson and its joint venture non-operating partner PetroShale Inc. acquired half of Australia-based Samson Oil and Gas’s equity position in Samson’s then undeveloped acreage in the Stockyard Creek field in south-central Williams County. As the operator, Slawson completed one well that was being drilled in the prospect and as of late March 2014, Slawson has completed and tested four middle Bakken wells, with six more Bakken wells that have either been completed, are awaiting completion or are being drilled. In addition, eight Three Forks wells are in the works with applications for permits to drill either being submitted or being prepared. The four middle-Bakken wells on production in the Stockyard Creek had 24-hour initial production rates of 501, 556, 1,078 and 1,323 bpd.
Bakken footprint and output Currently Slawson’s focus in the Williston Basin is in the peninsula region in southwest Mountrail County, primarily in the Big Bend and Van Hook fields. The company’s activities, however, are spread over scores of oil fields in western North Dakota and eastern Montana. Most recently Slawson has been infilling in its acreage in central McKenzie County.
As of early April, North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Division records indicated Slawson had 192 wells on active status, 86 on confidential status, 10 being drilled and another six permitted. Most of those wells are in the Big Bend and Van Hook fields. As of January 2014, Slawson ranked 14th among the top 50 Bakken oil producers in North Dakota for operated, non-confidential wells with an average daily production of 21,720 bpd.
In Montana, Slawson had 64 producing wells as of early April. Most are horizontal Bakken-system wells and most of those are in the Elm Coulee field in Richland County, but a few extend into Roosevelt County. Slawson had another three wells permitted in Montana, two in Richland County and one in Wibaux County. In January, Slawson ranked as the seventh largest Bakken producer with an average of 1,904 bpd.
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