Forks

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that although natural gas production in North Dakota has more than doubled since 2005, so far more than 35% of that production for 2011 has been flared or otherwise not marketed because of insufficient infrastructure in the Bakken Shale.

Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. has agreed to purchase approximately 50,000 net leasehold acres in the Bakken Shale play from an undisclosed private oil and gas company for $540 million in cash and $50 million in stock, and agreed to assume the terms of a drilling rig contract.

Oil and gas companies operating in North Dakota’s portion of the Bakken Shale are spending about $3 billion on infrastructure projects to capture natural gas currently being lost to flaring at oil drilling sites.

Mountainview Energy Ltd. announced it intends to acquire a 20% interest in approximately 67,000 gross acres (about 13,400 net acres) in the Bakken/Three Forks Shale in a stock deal valued at about C$21.5 million. The parcels are located in the Medicine Lake Prospect, which is in Divide County, ND, and Richland, Roosevelt and Sheridan counties, MT. The acquisition will increase Mountainview’s position in the Williston Basin to approximately 25,400 net acres.

The Bakken play in North Dakota and parts of Montana holds a potential 24 billion boe in oil, liquids and natural gas, according to the CEO of one of the Bakken’s pioneering independent exploration and production (E&P) companies.

Growing production from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas has prompted Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) to agree to build a new 130-mile crude oil and condensate pipeline, a marine terminal facility and 1.5 million bbl of storage capacity, the Houston-based partnership said Tuesday.

Shale gas plays gained 14 active rigs to 964 rigs in the week ended April 29 over the previous week’s 950 rigs for a 1% increase, but the total was a 2% decrease from the 981 rigs active a month ago for the week ending April 1, according to NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count.

Further punctuating the rapidness of the expansion in the Bakken Shale and Three Forks formations in North Dakota, Enbridge Energy Partners LP (EEP) began Friday to expand its takeaway capacity by 23,500 b/d in the area through reconfiguration of its system between Minot, ND, and Clearbrook, MN.