Participating in a well

North Dakota Mineral Rights Burke County, ND
1

I have received a letter to participate in a well in Sec 11, 160N, 92W. I looked at the NDIC website and found there is already a well in the section. The info I have is that the name of the well is the Mitbo Federal 6092 43-14H. I couldn't find a way to see if the well on the NDIC site is the well I listed. My questions are: Have they already drilled the well? How do I find out what if any production it has? This would help me decide if participating is a good idea or not. Thanks to all. And thanks for just writing - asking questions or giving answers - it really does help.

Rick Tatum

2

Rick, you have the right well. I'm sure there is some oil there but the old 2005 well nearby did poor and a 2012 well nearby did poor so far with little oil, not much gas, and alot of water produced. The production south of you to the east and west looks like it is fair to decent, profitable but I wouldn't call it good, the area seems to not have a great deal in the way of field pressure as the wells seem to be put on pump soon afetr they are drilled. If there is more potential there, I'm not seeing it. I wish I had better news but I think it's a long term investment at best.

3

Thanks much. I keep thinking that participating for someone like me is iffy at best. I guess I will wait and let them pool me. Thanks for the info.

4

How do you find a well from the number they give on the screen in NDIC website?

5

Rick, if you have widely spread interests, I think you just need to wait for the right one. The one that that is a winner right from the start. I think this well would tie your money up for a long time before it recovered all costs. In the long term it could be profitable. The operator will drill a hundred such wells and he can make up in volume. The operator also gets to hold by production the entire 1280 with that well so he can drill another well later because 1 well will not effectively drain the spacing. Of the wells I looked at, I didn't see any that were testing any other formations, doesn't mean they are not there, just that nobody is trying to produce it. If the well was a shorter 5,000 foot lateral at 6/10ths the cost I would be tempted but you would be subsidizing the operators land grab with a 10,000 foot lateral because the field pressure isn't there to give the flush production to pay the well off quickly and the second 5,000 foot isn't going to add much to the well with the low field pressure. There is oil there, it's just not going to come out of the ground fast and the second half of the well with it's just as expensive completion isn't going to be as productive as the first half.

Rick, you have a good point about letting them pool you, 16% isn't great but it keeps all options alive. I am already hearing rumbles of more efficient short lateral wells in downsized spacing which would give a less expensive, more productive per foot well that is shared by only those in a 320 spacing. Your area that is marginal for a 10,000 foot lateral shared among 1280 acres would be more attractive to me as a 5,000 foot lateral shared among 320 acres producing 70% as much oil with 4 times the royalty per acre. I would want to participate in a well that had cut away the dead wood like that and if you let them pool you, you could have that opportunity in the future. This well holds the entire spacing, that's it's purpose. Nothing says that all future wells in that spacing have to be inefficient (for this area) 10,000 foot laterals.

Rick, the file number they give on the screen can be handy, although I usually just do a well search by section and may have to refer to the map screen if several wells come up to make sure I have the right one. If you want to search by file number, you can do a well search, any well will do, click on it's file number, at the top of this page you do not want, there will be a space to enter the file number you do want. There must be a way [ hopefully, but I have never bothered to find it] to get to where you can enter the file number without jumping through hoops but I have some searches memorized and it takes me about 2 seconds to get to where I could enter the file number for a well I want to look at. I hope this helps

6

Hi Mr Kennedy,

Your information always helps and I appreciate your input. The more I learn about this business, the more I appreciate people sharing their experience.

Like the 5,000 foot laterals. I did some searching this morning and saw instances of that. I was wondering why that would be occurring and then reread your post. Now I know. The only thing that was interesting was that Oasis had drilled all around my section over the last few years. What I was trying to find was production on those wells to give me a feel for the area. I am still not going to invest in the well but just wanted to know. How do you find production on these wells. I did look through the production reports on the website but they are not searchable lists just lists.

In identifying the wells, I did find that you can use "rectangle identify" - you lay a rectangle over the well # - that brings up a file on the well. Was handy for me. The only information I could not understand was the "status" column. There is a letter code but I could not find a list of what the letters all mean.

Well thanks again. Rick

7

Rick, I have the basic NDIC subscription, for $50 a year it's a bargain for me. The subscription allows me to look at production of any well in the state that is off the confidential list. I consider it the cost of a fairly nice dinner out for two and well worth the cost.

Rick, it's all economics, it's cheaper of the operator to hold 2 square miles with one well than to continue with the lease cycles. The well is inefficient but that is ok for the operator, the NDIC will allow him to "downspace" at will in the future as long as the operator says it is to prevent waste and protect correlative rights. The first well needs to be 2 mile to "hold" but nothing says the operator has to stay with 10,000 lateral wells. Looked at this way, the spacing we are talking about would be a good place to invest under the right conditions, just not this particular well.

Rick, I see your well 160-92-11 has already been drilled, green circle aroung the wellhead on the GIS map which means DRL status or drilling, which usually means in the absence of a rig symbol on the map, that the well is awaiting fracking/completion. With any luck, in a few months the status will change to "A" which means active or producing. IA means inactive, PNC means permit now cancelled.

It is a pain to search general statistics for production.

The wells 160-92

9-4 spacing has produced 44,191 bbl in 13 months, 4,461 bbl in January

15-10 spacing has produced 23,391 bbl oil in roughly the 5 full months of production and 4,714 bbl in January.

22-21 spacing has produced 39,927 bbl in 12 full months 3,585 in December only 11 days production in january for 1362 bbl

23 640 spacing, early well from 2008 when they didn't have the completion process down yet has produced 29,492 bbl in 52 months as of January and 252 bbl in january. A pity, it does not pay to be on the leading edge of exploration. I have a few wells from 2008 and they are alot less than they could be too. Completion processes have come a long way.

24-25 spacing has produced 7,286 bbl in 84 days, the only full month being January [29]days with 4,450 bbl in January, this well just got a slow start.

24 has another well drilling currently that I believe will drain the 13-12 spacing since it does not have a well yet to hold it, just the well head will be offsite drilled from 24 if I'm correct. Oasis sees profit in your area or they wouldn't be working to tie all of it down. I hope this helps.

8

That helps a lot. I think I am going to get a basic membership to acquire this kind of information. Thanks again