88 Energy has tuned up its Peregrine oil project on Alaska’s lucrative North Slope by using detailed seismic analysis to demonstrate a favourable comparison with its neighbour, the giant Willow oil field operated by major US oil company, ConocoPhillips. According to the company, the work has identified many similarities between its key prospects and neighbouring oil fields and could potentially tweak the interest of potential farm-in partners.
After hoovering up fellow ASX-listed Alaskan oil explorer, XCD Energy, in an all-scrip takeover completed earlier this year, 88 Energy has moved quickly to boost the prospectivity of its wholly-owned Peregrine project.
The company is looking to attract a drilling farm-in partner in time for the northern hemisphere’s winter drilling campaign in Alaska’s frozen top-end.
The David Wall-led Alaskan oil developer says that farmout discussions are progressing well with a number of potentially interested oilers.
The company is looking to lock in a farm-in partner and move to undertake the permitting and planning work for up to two wells on the Peregrine project in the first quarter of next year.
The Peregrine project has two key prospects, the Merlin and Harrier prospects. They were recently tuned up by the company’s geophysicists after they evaluated the seismic signatures of the Nanushuk Formation oil reservoir target at each prospect before comparing them with the seismic signatures across the oil fields immediately to the north.
88 Energy said its technical team undertook seismic amplitude versus offset studies, or “AVO” to assess several seismic attributes, including fluid factor, with favourable comparisons achieved between its prospects and the nearby oil fields.
The company cites a number of similarities in the seismic data between its Merlin prospect and the 750 million-barrel Willow oil field operated by ConocoPhillips that sits only 25km or so to the north. The seismic data also suggests similarities between its Harrier prospect and Conoco’s second oil discovery at Harpoon, southeast of Willow.
Previous estimates on the potential size of the Merlin prospect have hovered around the 645 million-barrel mark with a possible upside of over 1 billion barrels of prospective oil.
88 Energy is fixated now on getting a well or two down in the next 3-6 months subject to locking in a drilling partner with deep pockets and an equally bullish conviction about the prospectivity of the oil-rich North Slope in Alaska.
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