Oil explorer 88 Energy is making progress as it drills towards the 8000-foot reservoir targets at its potentially company making Merlin-2 well in Alaska. The company is chasing a possible 652 million barrel of oil resource as the it follows up on its 2021 Merlin-1 discovery. Merlin-2 spudded on the 7th of March and has been drilled to 2,005 feet. The surface casing has been installed and cemented in addition to the blow out preventer being tested.
88 Energy is using an Arctic Fox rig for the drilling and is expecting to take another two weeks to hit the three primary targets in the Nanushuk Formation.
The three separate reservoirs were intersected in the Merlin-1 well that it says returned compelling evidence of hydrocarbons across 41 feet of net payzone, although it didn’t flow to surface as it was drilled in what the company described as a “suboptimal location.”
Consequently, the 88 Energy geologists moved the Merlin-2 well east from the Merlin-1 towards the Nanushuk shelf edge where thicker and higher porosity and permeability formations are anticipated.
During the current drilling phase, activities such as logging and mudlogging will be conducted to finetune the prospectivity of the target zones.
After reaching the target depth, a sophisticated wireline logging program will be run, that includes collecting down hole samples and side wall cores. That program is expected to take approximately five to seven days to be completed.
The Merlin wells are located within 88 Energy’s 195,000 acre Project Peregrine tenure in the NPR-A region of the prolific North Slope of Alaska. Recent discoveries in the area come to around two billion barrels.
With big drilling targets in a well-established oil province and a 100 per cent stake in the project, 88 Energy looks well placed as it nears its target depth.
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By Matt Birney
