Whiting Petroleum Corporation (ticker: WLL) is one of the largest oil producers in one of America’s leading oil producing regions—the Bakken-Three Forks play in the Williston basin. Whiting is among several large producers in the Bakken, including Continental Resources, Hess, XTO, Statoil and EOG Resources.
Whiting controls 443,310 net acres in the oil productive sweet spots of the Williston basin, encompassing approximately 5,300 potential gross drilling locations.
Whiting’s other significant oil producing assets are located in the eastern DJ Basin of Colorado, where it has 132,432 net acres and an estimated 5,400 potential gross drilling locations in the Niobrara A, B, C and Codell benches. Whiting’s DJ focus is on its Redtail assets in northern Colorado.
Enhanced completions making a big impact
Whiting is taking significant steps to increase oil production within its Williston assets through the use of new, enhanced completions methods. Whiting is a believer in gaining a thorough understanding of the reservoir and fine-tuning completions to maximize production at every well location.
At the EnerCom conference in Denver last August, Mark Williams, Whiting’s senior VP exploration and development, told Oil & Gas 360®, “There are really two main drivers of performance, one is sand volume, the other one is entry point. Over the last year and a half, we have tuned our completions to address that.”
Moving ahead to 2017, reporting Q1, Whiting tallied average production of 117,360 BOEPD across both its Williston and Redtail assets. The Bakken and Three Forks plays in the Williston basin are responsible for the majority of Whiting’s reported production, coming in at approximately 93% of the total average daily production. The remaining 7% of production—amounting to 7,635 BOEPD—is from the company’s Redtail assets in northern Colorado, where Whiting is targeting the Niobrara A, B, C, and Codell/Ft Hays intervals.
More perforations
Whiting’s enhanced completions design entails the use of approximately 40 stages per well, averaging 42 perforations per stage. This amounts to 1,680 perforations per well.
More proppant
Recent industry studies and other Williston operators say average proppant usage in the basin is between 3-5 million pounds per well. Whiting, however, has raised its proppant usage to approximately 9 million lbs. per well, and is utilizing diverters to direct treatment fluids more effectively.
Higher productivity
Whiting’s enhanced completions strategy is earning increases in well productivity, showing a 64% increase from 2014 rates in the first 30 days, an 88% increase in the first 60 days, and an 84% increase in the first 90 days of production.
Shrinking drilling days
Whiting’s improvements have not been limited to production increases through completions enhancements. Since 2014, Whiting reported a 43% decrease in drilling time in the Williston basin and a 50% decrease in the Redtail. Shorter drill times per well equates to lower cost for equipment and manpower.
New technologies, drilling methods boost efficiency
Whiting also added increases in drilling efficiency by employing technological advances, such as mud motor torque increases or drill bit heat resistance, and drilling program changes such as an emphasis on pad drilling—drilling multiple wells from a single pad.
Redtail
Whiting’s Redtail asset in the D-J basin, where it holds 132,432 net acres, is a mix of 1,280-acre unit and 960-acre unit spacing. For 2017, Whiting is looking to target 465 MBOE EUR in its 960-acre units and 655 MBOE EUR in its 1,280-acre units.
While the Redtail asset is a smaller contributor to Whiting’s total average daily production, it has been earmarked for a significant portion of the 2017 capital budget, at $460 million dollars. Of the $460 million allocated to Redtail, $324 million is intended for DUC completions.
105 DUC completions in the Redtail foreshadow production gains in 2017
For Whiting, the Redtail is home to 105 DUC wells the company drilled prior to 2017, all of which Whiting intends to complete by the end of the year. In the lower price environment last year, Whiting suspended its completions before Q2, 2016—but the company is completing its DUC inventory this year. The company’s 2017 production forecast was raised to between 45.2 and 46.2 MMBOE.
Whiting presenting at EnerCom’s The Oil & Gas Conference® 22
Whiting Petroleum Corporation will be a presenting company at the upcoming 2017 EnerCom conference in Denver, Colorado—The Oil & Gas Conference® 22.
The conference is EnerCom’s 22nd Denver-based oil and gas focused investor conference, bringing together publicly traded E&Ps and oilfield service and technology companies with institutional investors. The conference will be at the Denver Downtown Westin Hotel, August 13-17, 2017. To register for The Oil & Gas Conference® 22 please visit the conference website.
