The Alberta Basin Bakken Resource Play of Northwest Montana; Same Formation, Different Geology

Five hundred miles west of the Williston Basin, a new Bakken horizontal play is quietly emerging on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, where the Alberta Basin extends into the United States. Newfield, Rosetta, and Anschutz are leading the way in this play, with each company having drilled 10-15 wells in Glacier County, Montana over the last two years. This is more drilling than has been seen on the Blackfeet Nation than in the previous 40 years. Despite this dramatic increase in activity, most of the townships on this large reservation remain untested. Two rigs were drilling in Glacier County as of the fall of 2011 under contracts to Rosetta and Anschutz. Newfield was conducting frac’ing and completion operations on several wells that were drilled the previous winter. Due to highly competitive leasing activity, very few completions have been announced, except for general statements about “encouraging results”. However, some information has been released by the publicly-traded companies during their quarterly earnings conference calls.

Although the AB Basin Bakken contains the same three-part lithology as in the Williston, geologic conditions are different enough that a new learning curve is required. The Bakken Formation is shallower, but apparently mature and overpressured, especially where the Alberta Basin axis nudges up against the thrust belt to the west. Unlike the Williston Basin, there is a thick salt section in northwest Montana directly below the underlying Three Forks Formation, which has created problems with horizontal frac’ing attempts for some operators. Productivity in the future may be enhanced by utilizing a pervasive regional fracture system, which runs roughly east-west through the area.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90142 © 2012 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, April 22-25, 2012, Long Beach, California