Continental Resources ( Ticker CLR ) is the largest
operating company in the Bakken Shale formation with over 600,00 acres going into 2010. In North Dakota, the Continental
holds 481,000, In Montana, Continental Resources holds 163,000 acres. Continental Resources is also very active
in the Woodford Shale natural gas field located in Oklahoma. CLR stock remains one of my top stock picks for 2010 in additional to Green Mountain Coffee ( GMCR ).
February 2010 - Continental set a new initial production record for a Company-operated
North Dakota Bakken well in the fourth quarter with the Hendrickson 1-36H (95% WI) in McKenzie Co. The well produced 1,990
Boepd in its seven-day production period test, and the well's best single-day production was 2,105 Boe, with a flowing tubing
pressure of approximately 3,000 psi.
In the first quarter of 2010, Continental plans to begin reporting single-day
initial production tests for new wells in the Bakken field. Initial seven-day production rates on some wells in the Bakken
field are being restricted because of natural gas pipeline capacity limitations. The limitations generally only affect production
during the first few weeks.
The Company's strong production results continued in the first quarter of 2010 with
the Hawkinson 1-22H (48% WI) in Dunn County, North Dakota, which produced 1,667 Boepd in its initial seven-day test period.
The Hawkinson's strongest single-day production total was 2,338 Boe.
Continental currently has 11 operated drilling
rigs in the North Dakota Bakken and plans to increase to 15 by mid-year 2010.
At year-end 2009, the Company had
481,850 net acres in the North Dakota Bakken, of which 81 percent were undeveloped. The Company had increased its total acreage
position in the North Dakota Bakken to 488,500 net acres as of February 25, 2010.
The Company plans to keep at
least one operated drilling rig active in Richland County in 2010, alternating between drilling 320-acre in-field locations
in the fairway of the play and additional wells in the Company's undeveloped acreage. The Company has 163,500 net acres in
the Montana Bakken, of which 60 percent are undeveloped.
In terms of Company-operated wells, Continental-operated wells produced even stronger results for the fourth quarter of 2009. Continental
completed eight gross wells (4.6 net) in North Dakota during the quarter, with six gross wells targeting the Three Forks/Sanish (TFS) zone:
Hendrickson 1-36H (95% WI) in McKenzie Co. - 1,990 Boepd;
Simmental 1-21H (59% WI) in McKenzie
Co. - 1,271 Boepd;
Hartman 1-28H (37% WI) in Dunn Co. - 1,225 Boepd;
Tande 1-23H (47% WI) in Williams Co.
- 1,148 Boepd;
Schroeder 1-34H (53% WI) in Divide Co. - 915 Boepd;
Cuskelly 1-7H (47% WI) in Dunn Co. -
901 Boepd.
Recent completions of Company-operated wells targeting
the Three Forks/Sanish formation of the North Dakota Bakken
From Seeking Alpha Our significance is just over a half of the wells we operated in North Dakota during 2008 were drilled in the ThreeForks/Sanish
reservoir. As you know, we believe the ThreeForks/Sanish has the potential to add significant
incremental reserves to the Bakken play. To evaluate that potential, we began testing the concept with the interest with the
completion of the base 129 each well in May. And during the year we completed or participated in the completion of 27 gross,
10.3 net, ThreeForks/Sanish wells and have been pleased with the results. Initial production rates
for these wells ranged up to 1,260 gross barrels of oil equivalent per day, and averaged 582 gross barrels of oil equivalent
per day.
Gross estimated recovery reserves assigned to the 16 ThreeForks/Sanish completions
we operated averaged 373,000 barrels of oil equivalent per well, again inline with our reserve model for North Dakota.
These ThreeForks/Sanish wells were strategically located throughout our acreage along the Nesson
anticline over distance of about a 100 miles north to south, and demonstrate the productive potential of the ThreeForks/Sanish
reservoir underlying our acreage. In a couple of minutes, Jeff, will discuss plans we have to further test the ThreeForks/Sanish
in 2009.
