34109, Fraser Federal, Oasis Dry Hole -- May 29, 2022

A reader asked about this well reported as dry, May 26, 2022:

• 34109, dry, Oasis, Fraser Federal 5300 11-35 3B, Williams County.

My e-mail reply to the reader:

1. Dry hole in the Bakken: ninety-nine times out of a hundred, a dry hole in the Bakken is due to bad cement casing. When they pour the cement and then check the pressure it can hold, it doesn't meet standards. Very rare, but that's the most common cause for a dry hole.

A dry hole does not simply mean there's no oil there. It's simply an old term that means they drilled a well and for whatever reason they did not get get any oil. In the Bakken, it's usually a problem with cement casing.

When I get the well file on this well, I will read the file and see if I'm correct.

2. About a week ago, you may have seen that Hess reported six dry holes on one pad. We had never seen that before. A reader aid the most likely thing was a legal issue over who owned the right to drill the well. Fairly often, in the monthly hearing dockets, I see CLR or some other operator go after another operator's well saying it should have been theirs and not the other company to drill. And then the NDIC sorts out the argument. In this case, a reader suggested, Hess drilled six wells (maybe just the initial spud; and not even drilled to depth) and then CLR or someone else stepped in and say, "hey, wait a minute. Those should have been our wells."

The argument goes to the NDIC and if the NDIC rules in favor of CLR then Hess has to shut down their operations on that pad but because they had drilled the wells and had produced absolutely no oil, the wells are classified as dry holes.

3. Hopefully that makes sense. But that was a real eye-opener for me years ago when I learned a "dry hole" was a catch-all term for any well, for any reason, that doesn't produce oil.