XTO plans for Billings county?

North Dakota Mineral Rights Billings County, ND
1

We have a lease with XTO that expires next June in T142N/R99W. Did a lot of research on the St. Demetrius Field. Checked all the permits XTO has pulled since January 2013. All there activity is up farther north. They are operating about 15 rigs in three counties. Interestingly in August 2013, XTO received approvals for up to 8 wells per unit for about 152 wells, 112 of those in this township. (4 wells into the Middle Bakken and 4 wells into the Three forks for each drilling unit.) But they have to do something with the gas?

Now with all that background information, what are XTO near term plans for this area? Several people have written in forums that XTO is dropping some leases because they have better areas, but I don't know where. I heard that XTO might be moving in more rigs into our southern Bakken area? What is happening with other people in Billings County? Are leases being renewed? Might other companies be interested in this area?

Richard Basaraba

2

We have had a lease in T141N-R98W with Continental Resources for six years, two 3 year terms, and the latest was to expire this coming October. They finally drilled a well into the Three Forks to hold the lease and it's been on production since June. No idea what the well makes yet and they don't return calls to let us know (since they don't have to) and we haven't seen Division Orders to sign which would give us an owner number which is needed to request production figures from their revenue department. We think that their staff is overwhelmed by the mountain of paperwork generated by this active operator. They are the biggest Lessee in the area, so if your lease gets closer to the expiry date, I would contact Continental for a new lease.

Perhaps you know that XTO was bought out by StatOil, the Norwegian Government's oil company. I'll bet that they drill your lease before it expires.

Good Luck!

Jerry Anderson

3

Jerome,

XTO was purchased by Exxon-Mobil in 2010 in a 41 billion dollar deal. Exxon has since acquired more Bakken acreage.

We have some tiny acreage in T141N/R98W also. We leased to Irish oil. Continental drilled this spring, and the well just came off of confidential status this week. The well is the Volesky 1-23H1. The well number is #27290. The first months production was 6400 barrels. A couple of 2013 nearby wells did better at 8800 barrels for their first month.

Richard Basaraba

4

By gosh you're right. StatOil bought Brigham Exploration not XTO. Sorry about that.

Thank you for the production figures. I hope our well does as good as those.



Richard Basaraba said:

Jerome,

XTO was purchased by Exxon-Mobil in 2010 in a 41 billion dollar deal. Exxon has since acquired more Bakken acreage.

We have some tiny acreage in T141N/R98W also. We leased to Irish oil. Continental drilled this spring, and the well just came off of confidential status this week. The well is the Volesky 1-23H1. The well number is #27290. The first months production was 6400 barrels. A couple of 2013 nearby wells did better at 8800 barrels for their first month.

Richard Basaraba

5

Jerome, you can check production for the Overloon 1-34-1H on the NDIC O&G Division website under General Statistics. They usually run about about 6 weeks behind on reporting.

6

Thank you, but the well was first produced in the middle of June, so nothing is available yet. We're just too anxious to find out since they lost the first horizontal leg in the well and had to drill another.

r w kennedy said:

Jerome, you can check production for the Overloon 1-34-1H on the NDIC O&G Division website under General Statistics. They usually run about about 6 weeks behind on reporting.

7

I had one of those too and I know how you feel. To me, if they could not get it right with a blank canvas, why would I think they could mill a hole in the side of the pipe and basically work through a keyhole, possibly with a mirror and have a great result. Mine did turn out ok though.

8

Hi I own some of the Mineral Rights from the Volesky 1-23H1 well number #27290. I found out it came off of the Confidential list Aug. 6th 2014. I have not heard a peep from Continental about it. I had a lease with them that expired June 1st 2014 Two months before they tried to renew the lease. That is how I found the well. I contacted their Landman he had no idea about it until I mentioned it to him. He checked and called me back and confirmed the well and told me to tear up the lease renewal because the Lease was held by production. Now how would I have known that. It appears that the well showed production after my lease expired. Was wondering if the Landman was being honest with me about tearing up the lease renewal because it was held by production?

On another note when do I get a Division Order and Royalty Payment from Continental Resources?? How long does one have to wait after the well comes off of the Confidential List for this to happen?

Can anyone provide me with any other information about Volesky 1-23H1 well number #27290 Production, What I might expect from this well, ETC.

Thanks Bruce

9

Fairly certain that you are now held by production. The notice to drill was dated 6 January 2014. The spud date was 2/6/2014. Well completion date was 5/30/2014.

I have seen many places on this web site about how long it takes for royalty checks---but I don't have that information handy right now. It is not to terribly long after the first sale?

Maybe Mr. R. W. Kennedy might be able to help us out on what we might be able to expect from this well? And I would like to ask him or someone else what affect a high water production has on a well. June oil production of 6433 bbls also had 16992 bbls of water? Seems like a lot of water?

10

Getting back to my original discussion about future XTO plans for Billings County?

Seeing how XTO has only been pulling permits for three counties, I thought it might be fun seeing recent 2014 well data on those areas where they are drilling. I started looking at real recent wells coming off the confidential list but soon discovered that very little information available. So I went back to March of this year and pulled XTO's data. Attached is a spread sheet showing that information.

Being new to this, my ability to judge the results are somewhat limited. But it appears to me that many of these wells are far superior to the recent wells being drilled in Billings County? Any comments? If you were XTO, why would you bother taking the time, effort, and manpower to move rigs back into our area?

I am just learning, and would appreciate the views of others wiser than me. (It doesn't take much to be wiser than me. LOL)

1636-WellsXTO13JULY.xlsx (10.4 KB)
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  • sorry wrong post
12

Bruce, first thing is to read your lease, I don't think it expired. There should be a clause saying that if the operator / lessee is currently engaged in "Operations" to gain, or gain again production and a period of no more than XXX days have elapsed between the abandonment or reworking of one well and beginning of a new well, this lease will stay in effect. As the operator was in the midst of operations when your lease would have expired if not for the continuing operations clause, your lease was saved for the operator.

As for the water, we have no idea yet how much of that was frack water, give it a couple of months.

Bruce Wernow said:

Hi I own some of the Mineral Rights from the Volesky 1-23H1 well number #27290. I found out it came off of the Confidential list Aug. 6th 2014. I have not heard a peep from Continental about it. I had a lease with them that expired June 1st 2014 Two months before they tried to renew the lease. That is how I found the well. I contacted their Landman he had no idea about it until I mentioned it to him. He checked and called me back and confirmed the well and told me to tear up the lease renewal because the Lease was held by production. Now how would I have known that. It appears that the well showed production after my lease expired. Was wondering if the Landman was being honest with me about tearing up the lease renewal because it was held by production?

On another note when do I get a Division Order and Royalty Payment from Continental Resources?? How long does one have to wait after the well comes off of the Confidential List for this to happen?

Can anyone provide me with any other information about Volesky 1-23H1 well number #27290 Production, What I might expect from this well, ETC.

Thanks Bruce

13

R W Just point of information does it matter at this point if I was held by production or not for the lease renewal? If so then I will have the lease looked into by an attorney. If not I will not bother with the lease renewal due to production and consider the original lease which expired on June 1st was held by production.

Wondering about a Division Order and Royalty Payment from Continental Resources?? How long does one have to wait after the well comes off of the Confidential List (Aug. 6th) for this to happen? Just general rule of thumb answer?

Thanks Bruce

14

Richard. Thank you for your diligence. We had a XTO lease near you that expired August 1. I did not hear from the Landman this time, and just a well because I am thinking to go non consent. While the St. Demetrius field is not getting permints pulled often, the wells are coming in respectably. So I think it is only a matter of time.

Richard Basaraba said:

Getting back to my original discussion about future XTO plans for Billings County?

Seeing how XTO has only been pulling permits for three counties, I thought it might be fun seeing recent 2014 well data on those areas where they are drilling. I started looking at real recent wells coming off the confidential list but soon discovered that very little information available. So I went back to March of this year and pulled XTO's data. Attached is a spread sheet showing that information.

Being new to this, my ability to judge the results are somewhat limited. But it appears to me that many of these wells are far superior to the recent wells being drilled in Billings County? Any comments? If you were XTO, why would you bother taking the time, effort, and manpower to move rigs back into our area?

I am just learning, and would appreciate the views of others wiser than me. (It doesn't take much to be wiser than me. LOL)

15

I have had some concerns of how XTO might view our acres because the wells we do have, except for one, are NOT all that great. Everyone says that each year the oil companies learn more about what they need to do to get more oil out of the ground. So I thought it would be fun to see how our older wells were fracked, and compare that to how newer wells are fracked. After doing that, I feel so much better about the overall potential of our mineral acres. Here is what I learned.

Most of the wells in the 142/99 township were done between 2004 and 2007. Here are some typical fracking figures for some wells of that timeframe. Well 17172-Jilek----838,000 lbs sand---16,500 bbls fluid. Well 15692-Logasz----418,300 lbs sand and 7269 bbls fluid. Well 16033-Chruszch----1,088,000 lbs sand. Well 15789-Paluck---Initial fracking---986,500 lbs sand----refrack---567,000.

Now let’s compare that to newer wells. One 2012 well is in this same township, but in the Fairfield field. Natalie #22327 used 3,183,000 lbs material for fracking. Thirty seven percent of that was ceramic. And 55,279 bbls of fluid was used. Warner #21690 was 30 stages with 3,043,000 lbs used. (35% was ceramic) Obriyenitch #22951 was 30 stages and used 3,125,000 lbs for fracking. (36% was ceramic) Odessa #22383 was 30 stages and used 3,200,000 lbs fracking materials. (37% was ceramic) Also 64,500 bbls of fluid was used. Evoniuk #21540---2,844,000---30 stages----37,000 bbls fluid. Buresh #27150----6,101,000 lbs fracking materials---17% was ceramic---69,120 bbls fluid.

WOW---The difference in the way the wells are now being fracked are substantially different from methods used just 7 years ago.

One real interesting discovery happened today. I sent an inquiry to the NDIC yesterday questioning why there was no frac data on the BASARABA44X-27 well. (#16664) (2007 well) The people at the NDIC have been remarkably courteous and remarkably very helpful. (I suggest that the State of North Dakota purchase the State of California and let North Dakotans run that state the way they run North Dakota?) Anyway, one of the state geologists did confirm, after contacting and speaking with XTO, that the Basaraba 44X-27 well has never been Hydraulic Fractured!!!! Interesting, how common is that????? The well is doing great---255,000 bbls since 2008.

So to summarize:

NEWER WELLS NOW USE 3 TO 4 TIMES MORE FRACKING MATERIALS THAN SOME 2004-2007 OLDER WELLS, AND PRODUCE A HECK OF A LOT MORE OIL THAN OUR OLDER WELLS!!!!

THE BASARABA WELL IS SOMEWHAT UNUSUAL IN THAT IT HAS GREAT PRODUCTION WITHOUT EVER HAVING BEEN HYDRAULICALLY FRACTURED!!!!! (the best well ever in ND---I think---over 2 million bbls of oil---has never been fractured. So occasionally wells are drilled into areas that have natural fractures.)

I ,like you, think that I don’t want XTO to drill, because I too, would like to eventually consider non-consent. Of course, I might change my mind if they wanted to drill 4 wells at once like they are doing now in their other areas. LOL