NRP - Sundance Reach $35.5 Million Bakken Deal

Natural Resource Partners (NRP) has agreed to acquire non-operated working interests in the Bakken from Sundance Energy for $35.5 million. 

“This is NRP’s second acquisition of producing, non-operated working interests in the Bakken/Three Forks play, which will grow and further diversify NRP’s revenue going forward.”

— Nick Carter, NRP's COO.

The deal includes 77 producing wells and associated acreage in Dunn, McKenzie, and Mountrail counties. All leases are held by production. NRP plans to participate in future development on the properties.

Read the full release at nrplp.com

SM Energy Grew Bakken Production 9% in the Third Quarter

SM Energy Bakken Map

SM Energy grew Bakken production volumes from 13,700 boe/d in the second quarter to 14,900 boe/d in the third quarter.

The company completed 13 gross wells and is producing 35% more than it did at this time last year.

SM has three rigs running, with a focus in the Gooseneck, and Raven/Bear Den areas. SM Energy has 162,000 net acres prospective for the Bakken and Three Forks, but is focused on development of 81,000 net acres.

The company made two comments related to testing in the play:

• Downspacing results will be considered in planning at year-end
• Evaluating alternate completion designs being used in the play - Current design utilizes a 26-stage sliding sleeve completion and 80,000 barrels of fluid.

Read the company's full third quarter press release at sm-energy.com

Hess' Bakken Production Grows by 14% & Well Costs Fall 18%

Hess' Bakken Acreage Map

Hess Corp has grown Bakken production by 14% and driven well costs down 18% over the past year.

The company is producing more than 70,000 boe/d from the region and is on target to meet full-year 2013 guidance of 64,000-70,000 boe/d from the Bakken.

In the third quarter, Hess brought 50 wells to production, while spending $579 million in the play. The company has now completed 122 wells to date in 2013.

The average well was drilled and completed during the quarter at a cost of $7.8 million or 18% less than the same period in 2012.

The Bakken accounts for 19% of Hess' production and 23% of the company's reserves.

Read the full press release at Hess.com

Kodiak Oil & Gas Grows Bakken Production More Than 50% in Q3

Kodiak Oil & Gas Williston Basin Map

Kodiak Oil & Gas grew production more than 50% to 35,400 boe/d in the third quarter. That compares to a little more than 23,000 boe/d in the second quarter and almost 16,000 boe/d in the third quarter of 2012.

Kodiak completed 29 gross (24.5 net) operated wells and participated in 37 gross (6.6 net) non-operated completions during the quarter.

The company plans to continue utilizing seven rigs and has two dedicated completion crews running through the end of the year. Production at the end of the year is expected to grow to ~42,000 boe/d.

“We believe the third quarter of 2013 was a transformational quarter for Kodiak. In addition to accelerated growth in production and reserves, we successfully brought our two down-spacing pilot programs onto full production.”

— Kodiak's CEO, Lynn A. Peterson

Downspacing Test In McKenzie County Proves Successful

Kodiak also released results from the company's first high density downspacing test in McKenzie County. The company drilled six wells targeting the Bakken, three wells targeting the Middle Three Forks, and three wells targeting the Upper Three Forks. The wells are approximately 800 ftt apart and target an approximate 210 acre drainage area.

The wells came online at almost 2,000 boe/d in the first 24 hours and averaged just under 800 boe/d over the first 30 days. The best well produced almost 1,100 boe/d from the Bakken and the worst well produced a little less than 400 boe/d from the Middle Three Forks in the first 30 days.

Tesoro Website Launched In Response to Oil Spill

Tesoro has launched tesoroalert.com to keep everyone up to date on the North Dakota oil spill response efforts. The spill was discovered at the on September 29th and became national news a couple of weeks later. Tesoro estimates 20,000 barrels of oil were spilled. The company has recovered approximately 4,000 barrels to date. The spill affected 7-8 acres and remediation efforts are expected to be completed by the end of 2014.

“We deeply regret our recent crude oil spill north of Tioga, North Dakota. This type of event is unacceptable. We take full responsibility and will make the situation right.......We`re committed to leaving the land in the same or better condition it was in before our event, and we are taking steps to prevent incidents of this kind from occurring again.”

— Dan Romasko, COO

A page of FAQs and the October 10th press release are also included on the site.