Inside

. . . in the Bakken oil patch
safety issue for us to pump it out of a
slough,” Campbell said.
While the company might save a little by
not paying for treated water that is trucked
in, using slough water requires the company
to either create a staging area near the
well where the water can be treated or to
pump it to an area where it can be treated.
One thing Campbell is sure of, he’s not in
Oklahoma anymore.
The veteran oil man is more accustomed
to conditions in that southern state, where
you don’t have to scratch down very far to
hit rock.
“The difference is that there’s no ground
bottom here. We have to do an extensive
amount of location work compared to anywhere
else,” he said, in order to construct a
location that is workable.
They’ve used a type of material called
a geopad, which comes in perforated rolls
that are laid over a location to help fix a
foundation.Then they cover it with gravel
before moving a rig onsite.
Other companies are using various mattype
systems to keep well sites accessible
in muddy conditions.
With two rigs currently under contract
in Divide County, Campbell said Baytex is
responsible for keeping about 70 people
employed. Beyond that, he said, there are
about 13 people in Divide County who work
on the production side. Some, if not all of
those jobs will remain as long as wells are
producing.
Ensign 67 Derrick Hand Pete Williams prepares to ascend the tower
under the gaze of motorhand Chad Olheiser. The Ensign 67 is
one of two rigs under contract to Baytex Energy USA. According
to the Baytex corporate website, they participated in the drilling of
12 wells in Divide and Williams counties during the first quarter of
2011. One of those wells, the corporation reported, had a 30-day
average peak rate of 775 barrels of oil per day. They expect to drill
up to 300 wells in the area, with an average initial production rate
of about 420 barrels of oil per day for each well.
Photos by Cecile Wehrman
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