Pantheon Resources PLC will develop the Kodiak project on Alaska's North Slope, formerly known as Theta West, based on new resource estimates.
The field is defined as the hydrocarbon bearing horizons contained within the large basin floor fan between the Hue Shale top seal and the underlying HRZ shale, from their downdip pinchout east of Talitha-A running to over 15 miles northwest into the new "chimney acreage" acquired in the 2022 area wide lease sale.
The new 2C estimates of oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs) total 962.5 million bbl. The NGLs are of material value as they can be blended with oil and the combined stream of oil, condensate, and NGLs have been estimated to yield about 90% of the value of the Alaska North Slope (ANS) price per barrel, the company said.
The resource estimates support Kodiak development plans for leases totaling some 126,000 acres (including recently awarded additional acreage), delineated by 3D seismic and confirmed by three wells (Pipeline State 1, Talitha-A, and Theta West-1).
Pantheon plans to drill the next Kodiak well updip from the Talitha-A and the Theta West-1 wells, where management believes the lower depth of burial should lead to improved reservoir characteristics compared with both Talitha-A and Theta West-1. A Theta West-2 well in that location would be expected to encounter a reservoir section with 37% of the pay interval exhibiting porosities at or above 12% and permeabilities of greater than 0.1 md—the typical cut-off for recognizing reservoirs as conventional which typically yield higher flow rates and hydrocarbon recovery rates, the company said.
The reservoirs in the structural updip portion on the Theta West structure are expected to exhibit the highest quality on Pantheon's acreage, in its largest trapping mechanism. Full cores and a full suite of wireline logs and representative fluid samples-flow tests from future appraisal wells will address the contingencies in the new reserve evaluation.
Pantheon holds 100% working interest in the Kodiak 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).
