An item of significant news that INDIRECTLY should have a positive impact for BRK is the deal whereby Continental Resources has effectively bought Echo's acreage within and around the SWISH AOI in Stephens and Carter Counties.
Looking through the Oklahoma leasing activity in the county website I found there 288 tractes in Carter County and 39 tracts in Stephens County moving from Echo to Continental with a recorded date of 7th June 2019. What is not disclosed on the site are thenumber acres sold or what price they were sold for. The acreage is predominantly unproven acreage but there are literally dozens of drilling, pooling and spacing applications littered all throught.
This is signficant for BRK because it is another massive validation that they are in a fantastic location ( which they were the first to lease 2 years ago) . You can't get any better confirmation that your strategy is correct when the hottest date ( guy/ girl) in the school becomes your partner to the prom.... and CLR are without doubt, the most important operator in SCOOP and they have basically told the world, they want to be in the SWISH.
What this means directly for BRK in terms of operations is hard to quantify at this stage... Even though ECHO had essentailly leased out a huge part of Carter County, I can't find any leases they had with BRK, so it should be business as usual there.... In Stephens County, Echo has a decent land position in the Rangers Unit, but BRK hold over 41% so they still will have front running for operations there. Some of the smaller SWISH positions that BRK hold where ECHO didn't operate may change operatorship to CLR but that is mainly horse trading acreage so shouldn't impact too much.
Does this mean BRK could be in the CLR sights as a potential target, possibly, but IMO BRK will want to win operations in their core SWISH leases, prove up their PUD's for revaluation before considering any major transaction...having said that, if CLR were to offer something ridiculous then who is to say what BRK would do.
Practically, having CLR in the direct area should mean a ramp up in drilling activity, as many of the players are Private equity guys who are not seroius about drilling, and want to flip acreas....it should mean BRK may be partnered with CLR in more non operated units in SWISH which would be most beneficial as CLR are leading the charge with new monobore drilling techniques that are decreasing drilling costs substantially.
CLR have been leasing around the SWISH AOI for a while but apart from a few leases they managed to pick up, they haven't had , or rather been able to get much acreage in the AOI itself, until now...
Considering it has been quite on the BRK news front, this item of " non BRK news" is about as good as it gets without actually drilling a well IMO.... BRK may not be in the ASX martket spotlight, but the SWISH AOI , if it wasn't recognised as hot property before, ceratinly is now by those " In the know" in Oklahoma.... and that is where it ultimately matters the most.
On another note, more validation of the quality of the Woodford target has come from CLR's Springer Unit , to the north of the SWISH AOI, where the first six wells have come on line with an average IP30 of 1660 BOE ( 1245 BOPD or 75% oil)
And a Newfield well, adjacent to our Stephens 01s-04w SWISH area has flowed 436 BOPD and 6.55 MMCFGPD
) must have rocks in their heads.
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