Oil Patch: What's it Like Right Now

Reprobait

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 17, 2015
Posts
3,105
Likes
737
Points
338
Just wondering what the activity level is in the Bakken right now with the current situation? I haven't heard much.
 


LBrandt

★★★★★ Legendary Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2016
Posts
10,831
Likes
1,384
Points
498
Location
SE ND
Those tough boys refused to social distance at the bars so they all got 19.and went home.
 

eyexer

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Posts
13,730
Likes
708
Points
428
Location
williston
It’s basically bottomed out and will probably remain at this level for the foreseeable future. Even if oil suddenly jumps up nobody will drill anything during this fiscal year anyway. Contract labor is basically extinct now. Very few left. We call roustabouts only as a last resort. We’ve been doing all repairs ourselves essentially. There’s just really not a lot happening considering it’s summer. It’s usually a mad house now. We’re just biding our time. Absolutely nothing will happen anyway until after the election. And if trump gets beat somehow I think any new activity in the Bakken is done. It’s essentially on life support now. And then to add insult to injury due to the low oil prices, inactivity in the patch and Covid shit the states purse strings will be completely closed this coming session. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit of the city of Williston ends up in bankruptcy. They’re 280 million in debt with nothing coming in. The state has promised them all this money for years and never delivers. They’ve had to put in hoards of infrastructure so the state could reap the benefits. If that happens your gonna see some initiated measures that will allow cities like Williston and counties to tax oil companies directly for various things. The counties should have been allowed to tax so much per well to help recoup infrastructure costs since the state won’t share any of it. What really needs to happen is a measure to force the state to send back 1/2 of oil taxes collected to oil producing counties for the next twenty years or so. Something has to be done in the way of revenue sharing. I kind of got of subject there but it’s all tied together. Many don’t understand the long term damage this is going to cost western ND. The state can just wash their hands of it

- - - Updated - - -

It’s basically bottomed out and will probably remain at this level for the foreseeable future. Even if oil suddenly jumps up nobody will drill anything during this fiscal year anyway. Contract labor is basically extinct now. Very few left. We call roustabouts only as a last resort. We’ve been doing all repairs ourselves essentially. There’s just really not a lot happening considering it’s summer. It’s usually a mad house now. We’re just biding our time. Absolutely nothing will happen anyway until after the election. And if trump gets beat somehow I think any new activity in the Bakken is done. It’s essentially on life support now. And then to add insult to injury due to the low oil prices, inactivity in the patch and Covid shit the states purse strings will be completely closed this coming session. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit of the city of Williston ends up in bankruptcy. They’re 280 million in debt with nothing coming in. The state has promised them all this money for years and never delivers. They’ve had to put in hoards of infrastructure so the state could reap the benefits. If that happens your gonna see some initiated measures that will allow cities like Williston and counties to tax oil companies directly for various things. The counties should have been allowed to tax so much per well to help recoup infrastructure costs since the state won’t share any of it. What really needs to happen is a measure to force the state to send back 1/2 of oil taxes collected to oil producing counties for the next twenty years or so. Something has to be done in the way of revenue sharing. I kind of got of subject there but it’s all tied together. Many don’t understand the long term damage this is going to cost western ND. The state can just wash their hands of it
 

fireone

★★★★★ Legendary Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2019
Posts
771
Likes
46
Points
151
Agree completely but it is no surprise. Greed did it in. Boom and bust just like the old gold rush days.
 


eyexer

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Posts
13,730
Likes
708
Points
428
Location
williston
Nobody can control oil prices. This just happens. It’s all about timing. When it hits if your in a position to handle it then the company can make it. If your not you don’t make it.
 

raider

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2015
Posts
3,397
Likes
45
Points
256
Location
williston
my glass is half full...

lots of people who didn't want to be here are gone now - which is a good thing... if trump wins, the economy is gonna come roaring back and the need for fossil fuels will grow again... if biden wins and the left controls anything else in dc, they will immediately shut down drilling on federal lands, offshore, and then try to strong arm the dem governors to ban fracing in their individual states... if they try to ban it on private land, it will be in the courts for decades...

i really believe for the locals here that have reasonable wage expectations, it's a no lose situation...
 

Davey Crockett

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2015
Posts
13,691
Likes
1,194
Points
553
Location
Boondocks
Nobody can control oil prices. This just happens. It’s all about timing. When it hits if your in a position to handle it then the company can make it. If your not you don’t make it.

The trick is staying in position to handle it. When she first hit I had visiting at least once a week with a business owner in Williston , We both went through the last bust and he said It won't happen that way again in Williston. We will see high oil prices again someday but it will take a war to make it happen IMO.
 

eyexer

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Posts
13,730
Likes
708
Points
428
Location
williston
My personal take is demand for natural gas is going to bring oil prices up. People forget when oil production is down so is natural gas production. We’re down at least 33% in production in ND alone I think. If we get an early winter and damn cold one we will see $60 oil just so that we produce natural gas.
 

gone_fishing

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 15, 2015
Posts
698
Likes
6
Points
158
Location
North Dakota
My personal take is demand for natural gas is going to bring oil prices up. People forget when oil production is down so is natural gas production. We’re down at least 33% in production in ND alone I think. If we get an early winter and damn cold one we will see $60 oil just so that we produce natural gas.

Are you seeing improvements in extracting NG in the patch?
 


Mort

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2015
Posts
2,962
Likes
59
Points
278
Location
NW ND somewhere
Would have to mirror eyexer comments, but would add that there are only 12 rigs drilling compared to 61 last year to this day. They are still trying to frac what wells that were punched back when they had 200 rigs were going nuts. In fact, to me, it makes no sense to keeping drilling when you still have hundreds of wells to frac and get completed with the oil prices at what they are. So right now, wells that are in need of maintenance, they only fix what they need, some companies are struggling to pay their bills right now and I know that first hand and I will not name company. We will never see a boom like 2008-2015 again, sorry. People came gushing and and they went gushing out, didn't want to invest in this area, sad.
 

eyexer

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Posts
13,730
Likes
708
Points
428
Location
williston
Are you seeing improvements in extracting NG in the patch?
not sure what your asking. If your wondering what the capture rate is, it’s been 97-98% for quite some time now

- - - Updated - - -

Last I heard there was ten drilling and I think it’s down to 8 now. Or will be very soon. Yes lots of wells to frac yet. And fracking is virtually non existent right now. Some of these wells may not be fracked for years unless there is some regulatory reason one might have to be. If oil hit $200 a barrel like it was fifteen years ago this bitch would crank up to the same level it was. Don’t think for a minute it wouldn’t. Lots of lost revenue to be made up. Everything is done in far less time now than it was fifteen years ago. Hell wells are drilled in 1/3 the time now.
 

Migrator Man

★★★★★ Legendary Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2016
Posts
3,961
Likes
22
Points
226
not sure what your asking. If your wondering what the capture rate is, it’s been 97-98% for quite some time now

- - - Updated - - -

Last I heard there was ten drilling and I think it’s down to 8 now. Or will be very soon. Yes lots of wells to frac yet. And fracking is virtually non existent right now. Some of these wells may not be fracked for years unless there is some regulatory reason one might have to be. If oil hit $200 a barrel like it was fifteen years ago this bitch would crank up to the same level it was. Don’t think for a minute it wouldn’t. Lots of lost revenue to be made up. Everything is done in far less time now than it was fifteen years ago. Hell wells are drilled in 1/3 the time now.
Zero drills in WY right now
 

eyexer

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Posts
13,730
Likes
708
Points
428
Location
williston
Yep nothing drilling in WY. Nothing is going to change here for some time. For sure not until after the election. And then we will be entering winter, the normal slow down anyway, and end of fiscal year so absolutely nothing will change till first of the year for sure. Then it’s anybodies guess. If demand for NG doesn’t skyrocket it’s gonna be steady as she goes until gasoline demand goes way up
 

Recent Posts

Friends of NDA

Top Posters of the Month

  • This month: 159
  • This month: 136
  • This month: 120
  • This month: 110
  • This month: 105
  • This month: 87
  • This month: 84
  • This month: 79
  • This month: 76
  • This month: 76
Top Bottom