Awaking North Dakota’s ‘sleeping giant’?

from Prairie Business January 2014

125 years and counting

Company targets area outside oil patch for explorator y drilling

BY AMY DALRYMPLE

An oil and gas company is working to wake what it calls a sleeping giant in an area of southern North Dakota far outside of the state’s traditional drilling region

Strata-X Energy has received permits to drill four wells in Emmons and McIntosh counties as part of an exploratory program known as wildcatting, the North Dakota Oil and Gas Division announced Dec 11

The company, headquartered in Denver, says on its website the wells will target natural gas in the shallow Niobrara Formation, a significant petroleum system the company says has been overlooked in the southeastern Williston Basin.

The permits, approved Dec 11, give Strata-X permission to drill two wells near Wishek and two wells near Linton, says Alison Ritter, the division’s spokeswoman.

The Oil and Gas Division issued a press release on the permits because it’s so rare for permits to be approved that far east of U S Highway 83, says Director of Mineral Resources Lynn Helms.

The state has no record of either county ever producing oil or gas, Ritter says Another company attempted a drilling program in 2006 in Emmons County, but the wells were not economically successful, the Oil and Gas Division says.

“It’s pretty exciting to issue some permits that are outside what we consider the 19 oil and gas producing counties,” Ritter says.

Strata-X Energy calls its plan the Sleeping Giant Gas Project.

“The Niobrara Formation in this area has been overlooked despite gas shows and small flares being reported,” the company says on its website.

If the wells are successful, other operators will likely follow and do more exploration, Ritter says

“If successful, any type of serious drilling would really be years away, ” Ritter says. “We have to wait and see what they find out before anyone should get too excited ”

North Dakota has some natural gas wells, but most drilling in North Dakota targets oil.

Strata-X Energy, which did not respond to questions requesting comment, says on its website that two interstate natural gas pipelines run through the area, which could facilitate mar- keting the gas.

It’s unknown when the company plans to begin drilling, but Ritter says she anticipates it will be soon because the company was eager to have permits approved.

Oil field geolog ist Kathy Neset of Tioga, N.D., says it’s exciting that the company is explor ing and testing the formation

“Niobrara is hugely productive in Wyoming,” Neset says. “To me, this leads toward many different formations that have potential in this Williston Basin ”

Neset estimates the Niobrara wells would be less than 4,000 feet below ground in North Dakota, compared to typical Bakken wells that are about 10,000 feet below ground

In Wyoming, the Niobrara Formation is primarily targeted for oil, but also produces significant natural gas, says Mark Watson, petroleum engineer with the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission

Operators use horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques to produce from the Niobrara, Watson said.

“It’d be the same as what you do with the Bakken and the Three Forks,” Watson says Strata-X is also involved in oil and gas exploration and development in California, Texas, Illinois and Australia. PB

Amy Dalrymple Reporter, Forum News Service adalrymple@forumcomm com

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