Hess Cites Profits; North Dakota Gas Plant Expansion

Hess Corporation brought in a record producing oil well in McKenzie County’s Antelope Field, revealing that it was the highest 24-hour initial production test of any oil well ever drilled in the United States.

While this is not the drilling rig that drilled the record well, the Noble #6 rig drilling for Hess Bakken Investments is similar to the An-Bohmbach pad in McKenzie County.

In an exclusive report obtained by Oil Patch Hotline, Hess said the An-Bohmbach-153-94-2734H set a new record 24-hour IP at 14,662 BOEPD in April, which followed an earlier April 5 record of 10,626 BOEPD on a companion horizontal well in the same pad.

The well produced 10,169 barrels of crude oil and 26,960 Mcf of natural gas.

“While we achieved a very high rate IP, and it confirmed that our acreage performed very strongly in comparison to other operators,” Hill said, “we don’t think this completion technique will be the standard practice, just simply due to the higher cost and inefficiencies.”

The well was a test to better understand open flow potential and what completion practices the company wants to do in different parts of the field. The current standard design is 36 stages with 280 entry points on the hydraulic fracturing.

The record setting well was one of 25 new wells brought on line in the first quarter, pushing Bakken production 17% higher to 130,000 BOEPD.