American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2017 - 76

SpecialReport: Mid-Continent Activity Profile
For a growing list of independent
companies, SCOOP and STACK leaseholds have become prized assets with
the upside to ensure economic oil production and reserve growth over the long
term. In fact, Continental Resources President and Chief Operating Officer Jack
Stark points out that the company increased its acreage position in STACK
by more than 50 percent (to 200,000 net
acres) during the past 18 months, a fitting
accomplishment that just happens to coincide with Continental celebrating its
50th anniversary in 2017.
"We have increased our legacy leasehold position with good land work," he
credits. "We got there early and paid
well below market rates."
According to Continental, the company's fourth-quarter STACK production
topped the preceding quarter's output by
38 percent. Production of approximately
17,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day for
full-year 2016 totaled three times the
company's 2015 STACK production.
"Continental completed its first STACK
well in August 2015," Stark recounts.
"In the past year-and-half, we have pioneered the play into the overpressured
window of Blaine County, Ok. STACK
clearly has become a key catalyst for
Continental's growth. We have never had
a play this prolific evolve so quickly.
The results have exceeded our early expectations, and the impact on Continental's
production growth both near term and
long term will be significant."
Continental reported seven new com-

pletions in the STACK Meramec overpressured oil window for the fourth
quarter. Initial 24-hour production rates
on the seven wells ranged from 2,463
boe/d (73 percent oil) from a 9,800-foot
lateral on the Roth 1-26-35XH well to
the Wintersole 1-4-33-28XH that had an
IP rate of 1,604 boe/d (70 percent oil)
from a 10,500-foot lateral.
"I have been with the company 25
years," Stark observes. "The depth and
quality of our inventory, as well as our
capital efficiencies, are at all-time highs."
Geology And Technology
According to Stark, the 19 rigs Continental has been operating for the last
year-and-half are divided between the
Bakken formation in North Dakota and
the SCOOP and STACK. He says the
company holds 1.8 million net reservoir
acres in those three plays.
Stark credits good geology and advanced technology for the company's
burgeoning STACK success. "We are
dealing with excellent reservoir quality
rock by resource play standards," he
assesses. "It is also over-pressured,
which is great help. And then, the stimulation technology has improved so
much. All that makes STACK one of
the country's top plays. The wells do
not produce much water either, so every
barrel pays."
Continental is running 11 rigs in the
STACK, six of which are drilling Meramec
wells and five that are targeting the Woodford zone. "We are developing both reser-

Of the 11 rigs Continental Resources Inc. is running in the STACK play, six are drilling
Meramec wells and five are targeting the Woodford zone. The company has completed
35 STACK wells, all of which are flowing with an operating cost of less than $2 a barrel.

76 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

voirs," Stark explains. "We have a joint
development agreement with SK E&S
Company for the Woodford."
Continental has completed around 35
STACK wells, all of which are flowing,
Stark says, with an operating cost of less
than $2 a barrel. "The Ludwig well, our
first in the play, is still flowing," he marvels. "It has produced 368,000 boe (71
percent oil) in 445 days and continues to
flow 520 boe/d."
Moreover, another 35 wells are progressing toward completion, Stark says,
and Continental expects to drill around
100 gross wells in the STACK in 2017.
It has expanded the play west of the
original core into Blaine County, where
the rock initially was thought to be gassier.
But, he says, Continental has proven the
expanded acreage is capable of producing
oil. The company's leasehold includes
about 40 percent in the over-pressured
oil window, 30 percent in the condensate
window and 30 percent in the dry natural
gas window.
Outstanding Economics
The company indicates that approximately 47,000 net acres-or 60 percent of
Continental's leasehold in the STACK's
over-pressured oil window-has been derisked and is in development. This includes
an estimated 55 operated units that the
company projects will be typically developed in two Meramec zones, as well
as in the Woodford, with a pattern of as
many as six wells in each zone.
Continental reports that it is drilling
or completing five of those units, including
the Bernhardt, Blurton, Gillilan, Verona
and Compton units, and expresses plans
to commence a sixth test in the Angus
Trust unit in the over-pressured condensate
window. These density tests will include
as many as six wells a zone in combinations of the Upper, Middle and Lower
Meramec and the Woodford.
Stark explains that the company considers a unit to be 1,280 acres, or a twomile section. He says a majority of Continental's 2017 STACK drilling will be
in unit development, adding that the company is drilling two-mile laterals in every
well possible. "We recently completed
our first dual-zone density test of eight
wells in the Ludwig unit-four Upper

American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2017