Bakken Shale

North Dakota officials reported Monday another monthly increase in oil and gas production, albeit modest, but they focused more on what is being viewed as a lack of progress in reducing the amount of flared associated gas at the wellhead. The most recent results were for May.

In a move that did not appear to surprise analysts, Whiting Petroleum Corp. said it plans to buy Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. in an all-stock deal valued at $6 billion that would, if approved by all stakeholders, create the largest producer in the Bakken/Three Forks.

An underground pipeline transporting saltwater from oil and gas drilling operations has leaked onto Indian land in North Dakota, but it appears the fluid has not impacted a nearby lake that serves as the reservation’s primary source for drinking water.

Attached to North Dakota’s regulations to lower the amount of associated natural gas flared in its booming oilfields are specific annual targets to reduce the number of flaring wells, volumes and the percentages on a year-to-year basis.

There are up to 500 billion bbl of oil in the Bakken/Three Forks shale plays in North Dakota, but how much of it is ultimately produced will depend on a complex mix of technology and economic decisions still to unfold, according to Chris Wright, CEO at Liberty Resources and its services unit, Liberty Oilfield Services LLC.

North Dakota officials on Tuesday established an unprecedented set of rules that will be implemented beginning Oct. 1 to reduce associated natural gas flaring from oil wells.

Further proof that the Bakken Shale boom continues to grow, a proposal for an interstate oil pipeline to the Gulf Coast was announced Wednesday by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP), less than 24 hours after a similar proposal was unveiled by Enterprise Products Partners LP at a state pipeline summit (see Shale Daily, June 24).

Enbridge Energy Partners LP won North Dakota regulatory approval for its long-sought, $2.5 billion Sandpiper oil pipeline, which is designed to stretch the reach of Bakken and western Canadian oil supplies into new markets.

While hanging on to a good amount of acreage in two counties in the Williston Basin in North Dakota, Calgary-based Crescent Point Energy Corp. has found better economics for oil and natural gas production on the Canadian side of the border for the prolific basin that spreads over portions of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Montana and most of the western half of North Dakota.