EOG Resources Inc. (EOG) held its third quarter earnings conference call on November 9, 2009 and discussed the Bakken Shale. EOG Resources plans a major capital program in the Bakken Shale in 2010. The company also has concluded that the Three Forks formation is a separate formation from the Bakken Shale. During the second quarter, Continental Resources (CLR) came to a similar conclusion.
Bakken Shale 2010 Capital Plans
“In the North Dakota Bakken we’ll run 14 rigs in 2010 drilling in the Bakken Core, Bakken Lite and Three Forks Formations.”
“our big projects for 2010 really are going to be delineating how much of the area is really productive in Three Forks and what are we looking at there, it’s really 500,000 acres and then how much of the 400,000 non-core Bakken acres are really productive under this Bakken Lite concept.”
Three Forks Bakken Shale Potential
“Additionally, preliminarily tests indicate that the Three Forks is productive and not pressure depleted under our portion of our 500,000 acres. The next steps order determine how much of our acreage is perspective with Three Forks potential and we’ll have more details on subsequent costs.”
“So there is certainly a strong indication that we may have another oil field beneath our core oil field and I would say these pressure results are consistent with at least one other operator has already delineated.”
Bakken Lite Potential
“$4.4 million and you get about 300,000 barrels of oil for a Bakken Lite well… We’re drilling generally 5000 foot laterals on most of our horizontal wells. And generally, we’ve been increasing the number of stages, so right now we’re somewhere around the 15 stages on those Bakken Lite wells and plan to rise it to 17.”
Source: Seeking Alpha