Magnolia Petroleum Issues Upbeat Ops Update

Onshore US-focused Magnolia Petroleum announced what it described as a positive operations update Monday in which it announced it has elected to participate in the Curtis Kerr well in North Dakota.

Curtis Kerr is a horizontal well operated by Marathon Oil that is targeting the Bakken Formation, where Magnolia already has interests in 21 producing wells. Magnolia will hold a 1.96-percent working interest in the well.

"Our participation in the Curtis Kerr well shows we continue to be highly active in the Bakken formation in North Dakota," said Magnolia Chief Operating Officer Rita Whittington.

"The Bakken has almost single-handedly propelled North Dakota to being the second most productive state in the US behind Texas, and provides a blueprint for reopening plays such as the Mississippi Lime, where we currently have 80 possible drilling locations on our 4,000 net acres on this formation.

Oil sector analysts who follow Magnolia at London-based Northland Capital stated in a brief research note on the company:

"The Curtis Kerr well will be completed with a 30-stage frac so management has good reason to believe production could be substantially higher than the Fred Hansen well drilled from the same spacing unit with only a single stage frac."

In spite of only employing a single-stage frac, the Fred Hansen well recorded initial production of 391 barrels of oil per day and 158 million cubic feet per day of gas.

Magnolia also reported that production had begun at two wells it is participating in.
 

A former engineer, Jon is an award-winning editor who has covered the technology, engineering and energy sectors since the mid-1990s. Email Jon at jmainwaring@rigzone.com.

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