Play is expected to produce 1.2MMboe in 2014
Per Magnus Nysveen, Rystad Energy
Photo courtesy of Continental Resources.
The Bakken Shale is a late Devonian/Mississippian aged play, while Three Forks is Devonian. The Bakken/Three Forks play is located in the Williston Basin in northeastern Montana and northwestern North Dakota.
Bakken/Three Forks is a multi‐stacked system composed of the upper, middle, and lower Bakken members and the underlying Three Forks formation. Pronghorn Sands exists between Lower Bakken and Three Forks in some areas of the play.
Figure 1 depicts the acreage position for the top 10 landholders in the Bakken. Continental Resources is the largest acreage holder in the play with 1,200,000 net acres, followed by Whiting Petroleum with 850,000 net acres.
Figure 2 shows the net production for the five largest companies in Bakken, split between the hydrocarbon content. The production is given both for the reported 2013 and the estimated 2014 values. After acquiring Kodiak, Whiting became the company with the highest production rate in 2013 and for 2014 the level is expected to grow to 115 kboe/d, up 22 kboe/d compared to 2013. In total, the Bakken is expected to produce ~ 1.2 million boe in 2014 (90% light oil), compared to 1.0 million boe in 2013.
In Figure 3 the 30-day average production rate is given for the Bakken counties in North Dakota and split between light oil and rich gas. The values are based on wells started up from 2012 until the second quarter of 2014. McKenzie, Dunn, and Mountrail show the best well results.
