What is the typical spacing of oil wells in North Dakota?
This will change over time, but right now, most wells are spaced at either 640 acres or 1280 acres in North Dakota. I refer to the horizontals as “short laterals” or “long laterals,” respectively. A short lateral is “one mile” long; and, a long lateral is “two miles” long. In North Dakota most townships have 36 sections and most sections have 640 acres. (The townships and sections along the state border may be truncated). Therefore, a “short lateral,” 640 acres, is spaced for one section, whereas a “long lateral,” 1280 acres, is spaced for two sections. One can see examples of both, side-by-side, at the NDIC GIS server (map). It is my feeling that Whiting (WLL) pioneered long lateral in North Dakota but now they seem to be the norm. (Oasis, November, 2009; EOG, December, 2009, are both recent examples. At the time I first posted this, someone wrote to tell me that 90% of Hess’ 130 wells in ND are long laterals.) Historically, a 640-acre well had a lateral that was about one mile long;
