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We recently completed three prolific oil wells in the Sanish field. On October 23, 2009, Whiting posted a new record initial production rate for a Bakken well. The Maki 11-27H flowed 4,345 barrels of oil and 2.5 million cubic feet (MMcf) of gas (4,761 BOE) per day during a 24-hour test of the Middle Bakken. The production rate was gauged on a 40/64-inch choke with a flowing casing pressure of 1,190 pounds per square inch (psi). The previous record was held by the Whiting-operated Richardson Federal 11-9H with an initial production rate of 4,570 BOE per day. The Maki well was fracture stimulated in 18 stages, 10 stages using sliding sleeves and eight stages using the "plug and perf" method. The Maki well was drilled in the northeast portion of Sanish field, approximately three miles north-northeast of the Richardson Federal well. Whiting holds a 76% working interest and a 62% net revenue interest in the Maki 11-27H.

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Soaring ND oil production to get another boost
Posted In: Energy
By DALE WETZEL - Associated Press Writer - Associated Press
Sunday, November 8, 2009

North Dakota's already burgeoning oil production could soar another 50 percent next year as the state's capacity to export crude catches up with its ability to pump it, state regulators and industry officials say.

If oil prices stay above $60 a barrel and contemplated oil transportation projects become reality, the state could be producing 400,000 barrels of oil daily within five years, said Lynn Helms, director of the state Department of Mineral Resources.

North Dakota's current production now exceeds 230,000 barrels a day, which ranks the state behind only Texas, Alaska and California. The state's output supplies about 2 percent of the nation's domestic crude oil output.

It is expected to approach 350,000 barrels next year, an increase of more than 50 percent, because of a major pipeline expansion and the anticipated startup of a shipping terminal near Stanley that will be able to haul 60,000 barrels a day by rail to refineries near Cushing, Okla.

More expansion being planned by the pipeline companies Enbridge Inc. and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP would allow another boost that could put the state's daily production at 400,000 barrels, Helms said.

"Realistically, we could reach the ceiling within five years," he said. "We might be able to get there sooner, just depending on oil prices and drilling activity."

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November 09, 2009 11:13 am
Hamm speaks about North Dakota formation

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Billionaire oilman Harold Hamm believes North Dakota's oil reserves are double the federal government's estimates.

Hamm was the keynote speaker Monday at an energy conference in Bismarck. He said the U.S. Geological Survey's estimate of 4.2 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken shale formation could be "100 percent off."

Hamm is the chairman and chief executive officer of Continental Resources Inc., an independent oil and gas company based in Enid, Okla. His company was one of the first to tap the Bakken formation in North Dakota's oil patch 20 years ago.

The Bakken formation encompasses some 25,000 square miles in North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. About two-thirds of the acreage is in western North Dakota.

Hamm also said he believes domestic reserves are growing, and not just in North Dakota.

Another new record!

231K bpd in August!

https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/stats/his ... dstats.pdf

Oil activity shows signs of more life in eastern Montana
By JO DEE BLACK • Tribune Business Editor • November 21, 2009

RICHLAND COUNTY — Oil well drilling rigs are moving back into the fields in eastern Montana, boosting local optimism about the economic future of the energy business in the area.

"Oil drilling in Montana had never entirely gone away, but our rig count was down to about two or three, and right now we are up to four or five," said Tom Richmond of the Montana Board of Oil and Gas. "The biggest operations all have wells to drill, and there are probably about a dozen active in that general area right now."

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Another new oil formation for ND?
By JAMES MacPHERSON - Associated Press Writer - Associated Press
Saturday, November 21, 2009

A crude-bearing cache known as the Birdbear, beneath North Dakota's already booming oil patch, can be tapped using new technology that would expand horizontal drilling to parts of the state that have never seen it, geologists believe.

The Birdbear is a thin oil formation — only a few feet — locked within muddy limestone and dolomite more than 2 miles underground, immediately beneath the rich Bakken shale and Three Forks-Sanish formations in North Dakota, said Julie LeFever, a geologist with the state Geological Survey in Grand Forks.

"If the Bakken and Three Forks don't work out, here's another target," LeFever said.

Denver-based Whiting Petroleum Corp. already has about 50 horizontal wells aimed at the Birdbear in Billings and Golden Valley counties in southwestern North Dakota, said John Kelso, a company spokesman. The wells there produce up to 400 barrels daily, compared with the company's Bakken or Three Forks wells that can top 2,000 barrels daily, he said.

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15,000 new wells projected

"We project that approximately 15,000 new Bakken and Three Forks wells will be drilled over the next 15 to 20 years and that production will grow to 350,000 barrels per day or higher," Helms said.

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