petroleum news

Results look good

Preliminary information in from North Slope’s two winter exploration wells

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

Early data from the North Slope’s two winter exploration wells are encouraging, operators say.

88 Energy, whose subsidiary Emerald House drilled the Merlin 1 well in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, said March 29 that “interpretation of logging while drilling data indicates multiple potentially hydrocarbon bearing zones” were encountered in the Nanushuk formation.

The company said March 31 that wireline logging is underway with preliminary results expected April 3-4.

Pantheon Resources, whose affiliate Great Bear Pantheon drilled the Talitha A well on state land this winter, said that it encountered five zones in the central North Slope well, “all of which are hydrocarbon bearing and warrant testing.”

Prior to drilling the company said Talitha A’s target was “the shallowest Shelf Margin Deltaic horizon as the primary objective” and would also “drill through a number of secondary objectives including: (i) the ‘Slope Fan System’, (ii) the ‘Basin Floor Fan’, and (iii) the ‘Kuparuk’ horizons.”

“Since the pressure exceeded our predrill estimates we are proceeding cautiously with all well bore and testing operations and will report results to shareholders once available,” Pantheon said.

Pantheon is currently testing “the deepest” of the horizons encountered in Talitha A, the Kuparuk, where it ran into “higher than expected reservoir pressure which is very good news.”

The company said that this “along with the exceptionally light oil we have collected as samples during circulating gives us optimism.”

Pantheon, however, said it cannot draw any definitive conclusions until testing operations have been completed in the Talitha unit well.

Prior to drilling Pantheon estimated the Talitha well would target approximately 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil across the multiple stacked (primary and secondary) objectives. An independent expert’s report was completed on the updip section of the Shelf Margin Deltaic, the primary target, and confirmed a prospective resource of 302 million barrels of recoverable oil, the company said.