Dickinson, ND –

In 2012, North Dakota made oil headlines by taking over as the number two producer in the nation.

While production continues to ramp up daily, there is one part of western North Dakota were the excitement of oil has gone bust.

Chesapeake’s attempt to find the southern edge of the Bakken, is being described as the largest failure in drilling in the state since the 1980’s.

There are a few well sites in western North Dakota that look more like ghost towns than multi-million dollar holes.

Chesapeake secured leases in a large part of the state, south of I-94.

They drilled 8 wells, only 3 produced oil — but at minimal amounts.

So little that all holes have been shut in.

Director of Mineral Resources for the state of North Dakota, Lynn Helms, says “geologically, there were some surprises. We knew that there wouldn’t be any lower Bakken Shale in that area. What surprised us was to find out there’s no upper Bakken Shale in that area.”

Chesapeake’s wells, a bust.

It’s the largest failure in recent oil history in North Dakota.

“That pretty much condemns an area, if you don’t have Bakken present, the risk for finding oil goes way up and you need to have some structure,” says Helms.

The wells are scattered to the south of I-94 between Dickinson and Belfield.

Tanks are there, collecting nothing.

Well heads are in place, abandoned.

And at one site a pumping unit has been partially removed.

Helms says, “there’s only one well that’s made any measurable oil, and it’s about 10 percent oil at best, 90% water.”

Chesapeake was after the chance they may hit oil in this less developed area.

Helms says Chesapeake invested 60 million in the prospect of hitting oil.

That excludes money spent on leases.

“Because all the drilling had been taking place north of there and the geological risk was zero, it made it look too easy. So in terms of the technology of drilling and fracking, well prepared but in terms of geology probably not,” says Helms.

Chesapeake’s risk taking — provided large clues about where the Bakken ends. “It looks like 4-6 miles south of I-94 the Bakken Shale disappears,” says Helms.

Their experimental drilling will also provide answers about what else could be below.

Kathy Neset with Neset Consulting says, “they’re taking that information and they’re studying it. They are going to learn everything they can from those wells.”

Neset provides geology services to oil companies.

She says this is not the end of Chesapeake in North Dakota.

“They’re not going to say, we’re going to drill one well, if it doesn’t work, we are out of here. They have a very committed program in drilling and evaluating, I think we’ll see Chesapeake back here. They may be disappointed right now. But I think they’ll be back,” says Neset.

Maybe back and drilling in another formation.

Both Neset and Helms say there’s potential in the Tyler formation.

Helms says, “the area does lie between two producing Tyler fields and has mature Tyler source rock, so it’s not the end of the story by any means.”

Helms says Chesapeake will be forced to either reenter the well sites or to plug and abandon them soon.

The state only allows a non paying well to stay on the landscape for a year.

Retreived 1-2-2013. KX News.

Rangeland Energy LLC said that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the company to Inergy Midstream LP for $425 million. Rangeland is the owner and operator of the COLT system, the largest open-access crude oil distribution hub in North Dakota.

This could represent Inergy Midstream’s first move into the lucrative crude logistics business segment. Inergy is primarily involved in natural gas liquids and natural gas storage and transportation, according to the company’s website.

The COLT system includes a large crude oil rail loading terminal in Williams County, N.D., and related storage and pipeline assets. The transaction is expected to close in early December.

Founded in 2009, Rangeland is a midstream energy company led by a management team and backed by private equity commitments from EnCap Flatrock Midstream of  San Antonio. Rangeland’s management team will retain the company name and continue to pursue midstream development opportunities across North America.

The COLT system is located in the heart of the Bakken and Three Forks shale oil producing region. The system’s components include the COLT Hub, the COLT Connector and the Dry Fork Terminal.  The COLT Hub serves as a point of liquidity for the distribution of Bakken crude oil throughout North American markets by providing customers with crude oil storage and connectivity to BNSF Railway Company and various inbound and outbound pipeline systems.

The terminal was placed in service in early May 2012. The COLT Hub serves crude oil refiners, marketers and producers and has contracted aggregate volume commitments of approximately 150,000 b/d of crude.

The COLT Connector is a 21-mile bidirectional pipeline that connects the COLT Hub to the Enbridge and Tesoro pipelines at Rangeland’s terminal at Dry Fork near the Beaver Lodge/Ramberg junction, the Banner gathering system and a planned connection to the Bear Tracker Energy gathering system.

Construction of the COLT Hub began in May 2011. With six 120,000-bbl storage tanks and two 8,700-foot rail loops, the COLT Hub accommodates large 120-car unit trains.

Under terms of the agreement, all of the Rangeland employees working in North Dakota will be invited to work for Inergy.

–Edgar Ang, eang@opisnet.com  |  www.opisnet.com

TransCanada Corp. remains confident that the amended plans for the northern portion of its Keystone XL oil pipeline project will obtain the approvals it needs from both Nebraska and the White House, the company said Wednesday.

The public comment phase of Nebraska’s consideration of the pipeline re-routing that avoids an environmentally sensitive region will conclude soon and the Canadian pipeline company expects it will be able to complete its reapplication for a Presidential Permit later by the end of the year.

“The outcome of the U.S. election doesn’t change our opinion that Keystone XL will be approved” and built by the end of 2014 or early 2015, said Alex Pourbaix, president of Energy and Oil Pipelines at an Investor Day event in Toronto. It was just about a year ago that the U.S. State Department delayed a decision on the project and then, in January, President Obama rejected the permit application.

The project has encountered significant opposition from environmentalists, politicians and others concerned that the carbon emissions of oilsands crude production and consumption would worsen global warming and that the pipeline put a major aquifer at risk of contamination from an oil spill.

Pourbaix’s comments came before Obama, in his first press conference since winning reelection, spoke of the need to address climate change. “I am a firm believer that climate change is real and impacted by human behavior and carbon emissions,” he said. “I think we have an obligation to do something about it.”

Obama went on to say he wasn’t aware of what Democrats or Republicans were prepared to do, but that taking on climate change in a serious way “would involve some tough political choices.”

For TransCanada, the need for the full Keystone pipeline system (stretching from Hardisty, Alberta to Houston and Port Arthur, Texas) grows stronger the longer it is delayed. At 1.4 million b/d and capable of exporting one third of all projected Canadian oil production, the completed Keystone system will provide crude oil delivery volume that can’t be matched by rail or truck, Pourbaix said.

In the last year, shippers previously committed to long-term contracts on Keystone XL have remained so and enough volume has been added to make the line fully committed for 20 years, said Russ Girling, TransCanada’s president and CEO. Nervousness about long-term commitments has given way to worries that oil production will outstrip takeaway capacity which, even with Keystone XL in place could occur by 2017.

TransCanada executives also discussed the progress of the proposed Eastern Mainline. Studies of both  economic and technical feasibility are well underway for the project that would involve the conversion of natural gas pipeline that runs east to Montreal and Toronto and the construction of new pipeline to connect the converted pipeline to the Hardisty hub. Capacity projections range between 500,000 to 1 million b/d, depending on where interest lies.

Executives reported that eastern Canada’s highest-in-the-country fuel prices, familiarity with crude oil movement (unlike British Columbia where pipeline construction is encountering significant opposition) and refiners’ desire to obtain crude cheaper than waterborne imports have stakeholders looking favorably on the project.

Allowing “a couple of years in permitting and a couple more in construction” makes 2017 a probable startup date if the Eastern Mainline Oil Pipeline were to go ahead, company executives said.

–Beth Heinsohn, bheinsohn@opisnet.com   |  www.opisnet.com

Eco-Trade Corp., an independent oil and gas exploration company, said on Monday that it has signed a Letter of Intent to purchase the South Bakken Prospect in Montana in an area that has the potential to produce between 80 and 120 million of barrels of oil recoverable.

Eco-Trade will have the rights to the exploration, drilling and production rights on a property in Lewis & Clark County in Montana, near Great Falls, totaling over 5,800 acres called the South Bakken Prospect.

The property is located in the southern part of the Alberta Bakken Fairway, which is at least 175 miles long (north-south) and 50 miles wide (east-west), and which extends from Alberta southwards through Montana’s Glacier, Toole, Pondera, Teton and Lewis & Clark counties.

The Alberta Bakken Fairway is time-equivalent to the Bakken Petroleum System of the Williston Basin, and is considered a proven play with production and DST hydrocarbon recoveries from the Bakken, and Exshaw Formation in Canada. While management believes that the letter of intent and subsequent agreement may conclude successfully, the company cannot warranty or guarantee success.

In October, Eco-Trade said it had begun an internal review of its business model and is exploring options in new businesses ventures and industries. The company is also studying its options for raising capital and is in discussions with various groups in that regard. This was quickly followed by a company announcement on Nov. 1 to enter the petroleum industry in Montana Bakken.

–Edgar Ang, eang@opisnet.com  |  www.opisnet.com