DUCs

[Franz]

Hi Bruce.  Love your website and appreciate your efforts.  My question concerns uncompleted wells.  I understand there is a two year period after which the wells must be completed.  Are these wells completed in the order they were initially drilled as that date approaches or do the oil companies have options to extend the time period, stop drilling completely or something else such as let the permits expire?

[Bruce Oksol]

Thank you for your kind words about the blog.

With regard to DUCs, there is no "rhyme or reason" to when they will be completed. They can be completed in any order, just as with other wells. It is also possible that some DUCs will never be completed. It's hard to believe that would happen, but it's possible.

I was just up in the Bakken and all agree there are about 1,000 DUCs -- and there does not seem any rush to get them completed. And at the rate they seem to be completing them right now, it's hard to believe they will catch up, beating the two-year deadline. They frack less in the winter, and there are very few frack teams in the Bakken. I believe a relatively new frack company, Liberty Frac (bought out Sanjel which went bankrupt (?)) had about 5 teams in the Bakken this past month but will be moving three of the teams to the Permian, leaving 2 of their teams in the Bakken. Hearsay; no source.