Plugged or producing?
Sometimes the first information we get about a well after it comes off the confidential list is simply that it is either “plugged or producing.” This simply means that the well has been completed and is either producing enough oil for the oil company to keep it actively pumping, or that it is pumping so little oil it is not economical to keep it going. A third possibility is, of course, a dry hole. In the current Bakken boom, there are no “dry” holes. Obviously that is an exaggeration; there is an occasional dry hole but it is very, very rare, and probably related to driller error rather than no oil. However, occasionally the amount of oil coming up from the well is not enough to make it an economical well, and it is plugged and abandoned. When one sees the first report of a well coming off the confidential list as “plugged or producing” in the Bakken, one can assume that 99 times out of 100, it will be a producing well. Some wells will be great; some mediocre; and, some pretty poor, b
