88 Energy Ltd. has been granted a drilling permit by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) to drill (PTD) in Project Phoenix (formerly Icewine East) on the North Slope of Alaska.
The Hickory-1 well is designed to appraise up to six conventional reservoir targets within the SMD, SFS, BFF, and KUP reservoirs and 647 million bbl oil. The well is permitted to a total depth of 12,500 ft.
A drilling location has been selected adjacent to the Dalton Highway directly adjacent to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) utilizing data including interpretation of the Icewine-1 well logs, mapping and AVO analysis of the modern Franklin Bluffs 3D seismic data (FB3D), and publicly available information from recent drilling and flow tests carried out on adjacent acreage by Pantheon Resources PLC.
Construction of the Hickory-1 ice-pad is set to begin soon. Mobilization of the Nordic Calista Rig-2 is scheduled to begin mid-February from the Pantheon Resources Co. Alkaid-2 well location. Planning and permitting is largely complete, and the company expects to spud the well early March.
Hickory-1 project manager Fairweather LLC has completed the tendering and contracting program for drilling operations. Well cost is estimated at about $13.5 million gross (about $10 million net to 88 Energy). Flow testing is planned for the 2023-2024 winter season.
Project Phoenix encompasses about 82,846 gross acres. It lies on-trend to recent discoveries by Pantheon Resources in multiple play types across top, slope, and bottom-set sands of the Mid Schrader Bluff, Canning, and Seabee formations. It holds an estimated unrisked conventional prospective oil resource of 647 million bbl.
88 Energy holds 75.2% working interest in the project.
Alex Procyk | Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).