A Bakken reservoir study luncheon was held in Houston on September 27th as part of the SPE's study series. Marathon Oil's subsurface asset manager, Russ Buettner, was on hand to share his thoughts. A few notes from the meeting are included below:

• Marathon's EURs have grown from 350,000 boe to 550,000 boe today
• Spud to spud cycle times have fallen from 90 days to 28 days
• 30-stage fracks are the norm, but he's not convinced it's perfect in every situation
• Open hole to 20-stage fracks improved 12-month recoveries by 40,000 b0e (41,000 boe vs. 91,000 boe). 30-stage fracks are showing they will be better
• 8-12 mmbbls on oil in place on a 1,280-acre unit. That grows to 40-60 mmbbls when considering other formations like the Three Forks, etc.
• Vertical communication and not tighter well spacing is proving to be key in higher recoveries
• Water costs are as high as $20/bbl to handle from procurement to recovery and disposal
• A normal frac uses 25,000-50,000 bbls of water
• .7 PSI/ft is the expected pressure in their area of the Bakken
• Conservative about trying "Hi-Way Fracs" - They know more water is better and HiWay Fracs use less
• Producing 43 degree API crude with a 600-1,200 GOR
• Enhance oil recovery (EOR) characterization is important to the future of the play.

Marathon has 420,000 net acres targeting the Bakken and estimates its p50 resources at ~450 mmboe on 420-640 acre well spacing. The company currently has 7 rigs running, with plans to drop to 5. Two dedicated frac crews are also working for the company. Production from the area average 28,500 boe/d in July 2012