Mathistad 2-35H 'Companion Well' Yields Record Initial Production of 995 Boepd

ENID, Okla., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Continental Resources, Inc. (NYSE: CLR) today announced the successful completion of the Mathistad 2-35H (41% WI) in McKenzie County, a "companion well" drilled to test the Company's theory that the Middle Bakken and Three Forks/Sanish zones act as separate reservoirs in portions of the North Dakota shale play. The Mathistad 2-35H produced at an average 995 Boepd in its initial seven-day test period, making it the Company's strongest operated Middle Bakken completion to date in North Dakota.

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"The technical data from the Mathistad 2-35H supports our belief that the Middle Bakken and Three Forks/Sanish reservoirs are separate in this area of the play," said Harold Hamm, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "The high initial productivity indicates that we tapped new, undrained reservoir rock as we fracture-stimulated the companion well."

The Mathistad 2-35H was drilled horizontally in the Middle Bakken (MB) zone approximately 50 feet above and essentially parallel to the horizontal of the Mathistad 1-35H. The Mathistad 2-35H was drilled on 1,280-acre spacing and fracture-stimulated in 14 stages, the Company's standard design for North Dakota Bakken shale wells.

Continental completed the Mathistad 1-35H in June 2008 in the Three Forks/Sanish (TFS) zone. Prior to drilling the companion well, Continental shut in the Mathistad 1-35H and placed pressure gauges in its horizontal well bore. At the time it was shut in, the Mathistad 1-35H was on pump and producing 187 Boepd. Consequently, the Mathistad 2-35H's initial flow rate was more than four times the rate at which the lower well had been pumping.

During the fracture-stimulation of the Mathistad 2-35H, pressure spikes were detected below, in the horizontal well bore of the Mathistad 1-35H. "This was not surprising, given our placement of the Mathistad 2-35H horizontal only 50 feet above the lower TFS well, the pressure depletion in the TFS well bore area, and the high pressures involved in frac-stimulation," Mr. Hamm said. "We set up 'worst case' conditions, with unrealistically tight spacing and aggressive pressures, to see if we could frac through the intervening shale layer into the lower horizontal well bore. Once the Mathistad 2-35's frac pressure subsided and it began flowing back, we clearly had production from untapped rock. We saw insignificant communication with the lower TFS well."

"The marked difference in production between the two wells is the strongest evidence that we stimulated new reservoir rock," Mr. Hamm said.