Empire Petroleum provided updates on its Williston Basin development drilling program in its first quarter 2024 earnings results released on May 15.
The company said it expected its development efforts in North Dakota would return operations to positive cash flow.
"Recent drilling and data from the North Dakota field and reservoir affirm our confidence in the opportunity to drive meaningful production improvements in this area,” Phil Mulacek, Empire’s chairman, said in the report. “We continue to see excellent well economics within our North Dakota operations and are pleased to have achieved significant per-well cost reductions as compared to our initial expectations, following the drilling of our most recent wells.”
New zones of potential development have been identified with drill core data and initial production impact is anticipated to ramp up in the second half of the year and beyond.
Over the next two quarters, 70% of the horizontal wells will be completed or in progress and 30% of horizontal laterals will be completed for initial EOR development in the second half of 2024.
The first stage of EOR infrastructure will be completed in the second quarter and the balance installed in the third quarter.
“The integration of the new 3D and the EOR infrastructure in North Dakota are the key drivers for our production growth goals in 2024," Mulacek said.
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