Does Madison production indicate the possibility of reserves in the underlying Bakken shale?
Anything is possible. If you give a legal description I could look and see how close you are to Bakken/Three Forks production. Bakken is not the be all and end all, there are wells in the Duperow, Red River, Mission Canyon, Lodgepole and more that have put many Bakken wells to shame. The Bakken just gets the headlines.
r w kennedy said:
Anything is possible. If you give a legal description I could look and see how close you are to Bakken/Three Forks production. Bakken is not the be all and end all, there are wells in the Duperow, Red River, Mission Canyon, Lodgepole and more that have put many Bakken wells to shame. The Bakken just gets the headlines.
Robert Hildebrand said:
r w kennedy said:Anything is possible. If you give a legal description I could look and see how close you are to Bakken/Three Forks production. Bakken is not the be all and end all, there are wells in the Duperow, Red River, Mission Canyon, Lodgepole and more that have put many Bakken wells to shame. The Bakken just gets the headlines.
rw, please excuse my mistakes in replying. This is my first experience in forum communication. Not knowing whether this mail will reach you I'll limit this communication to answering your question. My interest is in S19, T163, R91. Regards, Dutch
Mr. Hildebrand, now knowing where to look, there is Bakken production about 4 miles north of you and 5 to six miles southeast of you. I would say it's likely that you have Bakken under you. Unfortunately it's not great production. Not enough gas to go with the oil to make it move to the wellbore. The wells North of you are doing better but they also are water heavy 5-7 barrels of water to be disposed of for every barrel of oil produced, not an insurmountable problem if the operator also drills a salt water disposal well on site. I think it will be some time before you see any Bakken production. I believe the price of oil will have to rise by at least 50% or a big improvement in recovery will have to happen, probably both, before great interest is generated in the Bakken in your area. I wish I had something better to tell you.
If someone were to drill the Bakken in your section I would not want to be part of a 1280 acre spacing. Since the greatest majority of the oil will have to be pumped and the pumps being unable to exert enough pull in the second 5,000 feet of wellbore, I would not want my royalty reduced by half to carry a second section that collects royalty but produces almost nothing. I hope this helps.
Dutch,
High powered scientists have attempted to relate the biogenesis of the Madison Oil to that of the Bakken. In one Madison field, that I know of, a good correlation was made. Otherwise the Madison fields are accumulations of predominately Madison age oil that migrated to structural highs. Most of the Bakken oil remans stratigraphically close to where it was deposited and isn't concentrated in structural highs but throughout the areal extent of the formation. The strongest relationship of the two formations is that they were both deposited in the same major seaway but about 150 million years apart. Well logs of Bakken penetration in your specific area will be a better way of determining Bakken resource potential.
The Bakken "resource" has only become a "reserve" in local areas where production has proven to be profitable; both laterally and vertically.
Gary L. Hutchinson said:
Dutch,
High powered scientists have attempted to relate the biogenesis of the Madison Oil to that of the Bakken. In one Madison field, that I know of, a good correlation was made. Otherwise the Madison fields are accumulations of predominately Madison age oil that migrated to structural highs. Most of the Bakken oil remans stratigraphically close to where it was deposited and isn't concentrated in structural highs but throughout the areal extent of the formation. The strongest relationship of the two formations is that they were both deposited in the same major seaway but about 150 million years apart. Well logs of Bakken penetration in your specific area will be a better way of determining Bakken resource potential.
The Bakken "resource" has only become a "reserve" in local areas where production has proven to be profitable; both laterally and vertically.
Hutch
Gary L Hutchinson
Minerals Management
Hutch, thank you for your answer to my attempt to start a discussion. Although it appears that my question was to satisfy a personal interest, that was not my intention. Your answer intuitively addressed the subject of the reservoir characteristics of the Bakken shale that is of general interest. I had not been able to communicate this idea as I was unable to navigate the Mineral Rights website. I think I have it figured out now.
Since you explained that the source as well as the reservoir formation are one and the same and that the Bakken oil probably did not migrate much, I assume that structure played a minor role in the accumulation of the reservoir. Nevertheless is it known whether the structure of the Madison formation is conformable with the Bakken geology?
Dutch