Well put Laz. It's easy to bash the company with hindsight. I...

Well put Laz. It's easy to bash the company with hindsight. I think the only mistake over the last few years was the instruction to the frac guy to 'pump as much proppant as possible into the formation'. I think it is unlikely that instruction would have come from DW. This in turn lead to 75% of the planned proppant being pumped into the lower zone of the HRZ.

I have shares in another oiler and they have patents for a refracking and parent well protection method/technique that presurises old wells with nitrogen or co2. When companies try to refrac old wells to try to get more oil out, the frac fluid pumped in under pressure, naturally gravitates towards the old fractures / areas of low pressure, meaning that not much new/virgin rock gets fractured. With this tech the injected gas naturally flows to areas of lowest pressure (the already fracked and depleted areas of the formation) and then when the frac fluid is pumped in the gas prevents the frack fluid naturally gravitating to those lower pressure depleted zones causing the frack fluid to frack virgin rock.

On this notion and with the lower zone of IW2V being super fracked and having 75% of the proppant and the fact there seems to be no 'barrier' between the zones (there had been a question mark over the barrier prior to drilling), the cracks could have travelled further than anticipated and into the upper zone. When the wellbore was plugged and the upper zone fracked, the second lot of frack fluid and proppant for the upper zone, via the extended fracture network of the lower zone, could have been drawn to the lower pressure of the lower HRZ zone to in effect frack and prop the lower HRZ even more.

IMO this is why we had gas shows but hardly any oil, with the lower zone being gassy and the upper zone more oily.

It is possible that they could have fracked each zone 50/50 with the proppant and still come out with the same result, but prior to drilling they did not know which zone was best. They now know this and this will help with landing a lateral. It's my understanding that the fracs were staying open and for these reasons I think another crack at the HRZ with a horizontal this Alaskan summer will prove successful.