Hess Corporation Initiates Ward County Bakken Play With Drill Bit

Ward County, North Dakota

Hess Corp. (Hess), one of the most active players chasing the Bakken in Mountrail County, has moved in Nabors rig #742 and has begun making hole at a horizontal Bakken test in neighboring Ward County, North Dakota. Presently, there is no Bakken production in the area, and the Hess attempt represents the first horizontal Bakken wildcat to be drilled within the county’s confines. Hess has spud in the IM-Shorty-159-88-0805H1 se-se 8-159n-88w, with a proposed bottom-hole location terminating in the nw-nw 5-159n-88w.

Prior to the spudding of this wildcat, Hess had requested and received approval from the North Dakota Industrial Commission to drill this prospect on 1,280-acre spacing. To support their cause for this request, the company supplied the following data to the commission regarding the IM-Shorty-159-88-0805H1 drillsite:

Original Oil In Place and Reserves
Reservoir	Bakken
Thickness	32’
Porosity	6.00%
Oil saturation	80.00%
Formation volume factor	1.64 RB/STB
Acreage	1280 acres
OOIP	9 mmbo
Solution gas–oil ratio	1,300 SCF/STB
Recovery factor	7% of OOIP
Recoverable reserves	674 mbo and 876 mmcfg
Economics
Investment	$5,400,000
OPEX	$6,500 per month
IP	175 bopd
Oil price	$80.00 per bbl
Gas price	$8.00 per mcf
Rate of return	52%
Payout	2.5 years
NPV at 10%–MM$	3.5

 This active prospect by Hess is located roughly 3 miles south of Kenmare and 1 mile the north of abandoned Madison production at Baden Field. Of the ten wells drilled within this township, none have ever penetrated the complete Bakken section. The only well drilled that encountered the Bakken is 2 miles to the southeast of the Hess drillsite and was operated by Oxy USA at the Feldman #1 ne-ne 15-159n-88w. This test was a Lodgepole prospect that bottomed in the Bakken at a depth of 7,540’. No Lodgepole mound buildup was encountered in this hole and the well was abandoned in 1999. This wildcat was an attempt by Oxy USA to find Lodgepole production similar to that found in the Dickinson area 125 miles southwest. Log tops of this failure include the Ratcliffe at 6,025’, State “A” Marker at 6,228’, and the Bakken was picked at 7,432’ under a KB elevation of 2,000’.

As reported in a previous issue of the RMOJ, Hess plans to drill at least two Bakken wells in Ward County. One township to the west, Hess has staked the IM-Grubb-159-89-0805H-1 se-se 8-159n-89w. This proposed Bakken test is in an area that has seen limited exploration; of those holes drilled, most were targeting the Madison. There was one test drilled 3 miles north of this location that did look at the Bakken. Drilled by Clarion Resources, the Fleckten #1-20 ne-ne 20-160n-89w bottomed in the Three Forks at a depth of 7,800’. According to the well file, this prospect was set up primarily as a Madison test with a secondary objective being the vertical Bakken. The only test conducted in this hole was in the Madison from 6,510’ to 6,536’, in which the pipe recovered 203’ of highly gas-cut drilling mud, 533’ of heavily gas-cut muddy sulfur water with a trace of oil, and 1,456’ of drilling mud. The sample chamber held 2,300 cc of drilling mud. The company did cut a core in the Bakken from 7,651’ to 7,691’; however, analysis indicated a wet reservoir and the hole was abandoned in 1981.

Nearest Bakken activity conducted by Hess is roughly 16 miles southwest at the RS-State C-157-90-3603H-1 nw-nw 36-157n-90w, Mountrail County. This test has been drilled and is currently being evaluated. Hess currently has three rigs under contract in Mountrail County, all of which are chasing the horizontal Bakken.