American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015 - 115

SpecialReport: Mid-Continent Activity Update
Chuck Duginski, vice president of
southern region production for Continental Resources, says SCOOP wells
have low decline curves compared with
other resource plays, making it still an attractive play despite the downturn in
commodity prices.
"These wells are recognized as some
of the best in North America," he contends.
"We have scaled down our budget, but
SCOOP still draws a big chunk of that.
"The Woodford wells have low decline
rates; they flatten really nicely," Duginski continues. "There have been very flat
declines on the early Springer wells, too.
The Wilkerson 1-20H, our first Springer
well, still is making 250 barrels of oil
equivalent a day after 26 months. It has
made more than 35,000 boe in just over
two years."
Duginski says the SCOOP region has
been a well-kept secret until recently, in part
because of the small number of players involved. "There are only a few big players
(Continental, Newfield, and Marathon Oil
Corp. are the most active companies), not
dozens of operators as in the Permian Basin,
Eagle Ford Shale and other resource plays,"
he reflects. "SCOOP has the potential to be
as significant as the Bakken to Continental because of its performance and the size
of our position. We have two plays to grow
the company now."
SCOOP Discovery
Duginski says Continental's discovery
of the SCOOP was a result of the company's desire to create opportunities, even
during a downturn. "Our activity had its
genesis in the last major U.S. downturn,"
he explains. "We were involved in the
Arkoma Woodford and the Northwest
Cana Field, which were mostly dry gas
plays. We started looking at the SCOOP
when the market shifted in 2008-09. We
had the benefit of well control from all the
vertical wells that had been drilled there.
It looked like the Woodford thickened
southeast of the Cana. We really kicked
off the development phase in 2012 and announced the play that fall. We have been
hard at it ever since."
Although much deeper than the Eagle
Ford in South Texas, Duginski says the
SCOOP Woodford is similar to the Eagle
Ford in that there are distinctive crude oil,
wet gas and dry gas windows. As of April,
Continental had 192 horizontal wells producing in SCOOP, which includes both
Woodford and Springer Shale wells.

Duginski says the company saw the potential of the Springer Shale when it
drilled its initial Woodford wells in the
SCOOP. "We evaluated it along with the
Woodford," he relates. "Our first Springer
well, the Wilkerson, was drilled in late
2012. We kept the play quiet for quite a
while. We had great initial production from
the Wilkerson, so we drilled a step-out 25
miles south, then a third well for verification nearer the Wilkerson. We stopped
drilling then while we continued to acquire
acreage. We kicked into true appraisal of
the Springer Shale late in the first quarter
of last year."
Continental has 33 producing wells in
the Springer Shale. Duginski says it has
roughly 400,000 net acres in SCOOP,
nearly half of which are prospective to the
Springer.
Longer Laterals
Oklahoma rules are one reason Continental Resources has gone to longer laterals-often 10,000 feet in order to drain
two sections.
"Oklahoma requires a combined setback from the lease line of 330 feet for horizontal wells, even if a company has both
sections leased," Duginski points out. "If
we replace two single-mile wells with one
two-mile well, we can eliminate the setback
area at the lease line, plus the section otherwise lost in building one of the two
curves. You actually get to complete more
than double the lateral length, which is a
benefit to us and the mineral owner. This
develops more than double the resource for

about one-and-a-half times the cost."
Continental runs 16-18 fracture stages
per mile, according to Duginski, so it usually employs 30-35 fracture stages on its
two-mile laterals.
When they hit the sweet spot in the liquids-rich portion of the Woodford or in the
Springer Shale, he says the wells have productivity comparable to high-pressure
gas wells. Duginski notes, however, that
there is not one, cookie-cutter completion
design because the wells vary so much
from making more oil on the east to
deeper horizons and drier gas to the west.
"There are different structural settings; a lot of variables," he states. "There
is not a single completion design."
Beginning in 2014 and continuing this
year, Continental began addressing spacing and infill drilling, Duginski continues.
"We are just getting into density drilling
in both," he remarks. "We have two infill
units in the Woodford and two in the
Springer that are producing. We are getting a feel now for developing SCOOP as
a whole."
SCOOP's economics, including longer
drilling times because of hard rock and
deeper depths, have pushed Continental to
drill fewer wells per pad to start production more quickly, according to Duginski. To date, he says, the company seldom
has drilled more than two wells per pad
there.
Evolution Of STACK
Like Continental Resources, Packer
says Newfield had been drilling Woodford

Wells in the South Central Oklahoma Oil Province have low decline curves compared
with other resources plays, making them still attractive despite the downturn in commodity prices, says Chuck Duginski, vice president of southern region production for
Continental Resources, which pioneered the play.

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American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015

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