is bakken a goer., page-19

A bit more info on Bakken and Thtee Forks August 09 Quote:::











Three Forks Fires up area oil industry





















08-08 Three Forks Fires up area oil industry
North Dakota may have another big oil field
Three Forks fires up some in the industry
By JAMES MACPHERSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aug. 1, 2009, 4:38PM
BISMARCK, N.D. Dozens of fruitful wells beneath the rich Bakken shale in North Dakota continue to fuel a hunch among oilmen and geologists that another vast crude-bearing formation may be buried in the state's vast oil patch.
Lynn Helms, director of the state Department of Mineral Resources, said recent production results from 103 newly tapped wells in the Three Forks-Sanish formation show many that are as good or better than some in the Bakken, which lies two miles under the surface in western North Dakota and holds billions of barrels of oil.
I think it's a big deal and we're pretty fired up about it, Helms said.
Companies have reported some Three Forks wells recovering more than 800 barrels daily, considered decent by Bakken standards.
Denver-based Whiting Petroleum Corp. has drilled two wells in the Three Forks formation, with one that recorded more than 1,000 barrels of oil a day, said John Kelso, a company spokesman.
Early in the play'
We are excited about Three Forks but it's early on in the play, Kelso said.
Whiting has one Bakken well that recorded more than 4,000 barrels a day last year, thought to be a record for the formation and about double the highest Three Forks well drilled to date.
Kelso said Whiting's primary focus at present is on the Bakken.
With the turbulence in crude oil prices, we've kind of backed off Three Forks for the Bakken, Kelso said. We will very likely get after Three Forks in 2010, depending on oil prices.
The Bakken formation encompasses some 25,000 square miles within the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Montana. The U.S. Geological Survey has called it the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed.
The Three Forks-Sanish formation is made up of sand and porous rock directly below the Bakken shale. But geologists don't know whether the Three Forks-Sanish is a separate oil-producing formation or if it catches oil that flows from the Bakken shale above.
State and industry officials are conducting a study to determine whether the Three Forks is a unique reservoir. The plan is to compare results from closely spaced wells, one aiming for the Three Forks, and the other at the Bakken. Researchers will look at pressure changes in the formations to determine if they are connected.
Results from the study could be ready later this year, officials say. It already is spurring some speculation that the state has billions of barrels more in oil reserves.
Eventually it could equal the Bakken, which is remarkable, and that's an understatement, Helms said.
Promising production results from the Three Forks could mean that companies that come up empty in the Bakken could use existing leases to drill in the same area for Three Forks oil.
Geologists say the Three Forks-Sanish is typically about 250 feet thick. Julie LeFever, a geologist with the state Geological Survey in Grand Forks, has studied the Bakken for two decades. She believes oil found in the Three Forks-Sanish has come from the Bakken over millions of years.
It's another target, LeFever said. If the Bakken doesn't pay, maybe the Three Forks will.
Most companies working in the state's oil patch continue to focus solely on the Bakken, said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, a Bismarck-based group that represents about 160 companies.
I think it's a huge deal, Ness said of the emerging Three Forks play. But it is still vastly unknown and overshadowed by the urgency to develop the Bakken.
Looking for sweet spot'
Donald Kessel, vice president of Houston-based Murex Petroleum Corp., said his company was among the first to get a producing well in the Bakken in North Dakota about four years ago. The company now has 26 producing wells in the Tioga and Stanley areas of northwestern North Dakota.
Kessel believes that not all of the Three Forks is laden with oil.
With Three Forks, you have got to find a sweet spot where it develops, Kessel said. It is not sandwiched like the Bakken between two shales producing oil.
Oilmen and others had known for years that the Bakken held oil. High oil prices and demand in the past few years spurred technology enough to begin tapping it.
Kessel said techniques learned from the Bakken are now being used at other oil shales around the world.