According to state of Alaska Division of Oil and Gas lease records and announcements by a newly formed Alaska subsidiary of London-based Pantheon Resources PLC, Pantheon is in the process of acquiring two wholly owned companies from Great Bear Petroleum Operating LLC - Great Bear Petroleum Ventures I and Great Bear Petroleum Ventures II.

Great Bear's leases, between 285,000 and 290,000 acres on Alaska's North Slope, lie immediately south of the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk oil fields. One of the leases, ADL 391720, includes the Winx 1 well lease.

According to a Jan. 13 edition article in Petroleum News, construction of an 11-mile ice road to the drill site for the planned Winx 1 exploration well is underway, per project operator, an 88 Energy Ltd. consortium (88, Otto Energy, Red Emperor Resources and Great Bear Petroleum).

The drilling location is about 4 miles east of the Horseshoe 1/1A discovery well, drilled in 2017 by Armstrong and partners, and close to the Pikka/Horseshoe trend in which major oil resources have been found in the Nanushuk formation.

The Nanushuk has been the primary focus of recent significant oil discoveries on the North Slope. 88 Energy said that a prospect in the Nanushuk is the primary target for the Winx well, but that there are multiple, stacked drilling objectives, identified by using 3-D seismic data acquired from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. They estimate a gross oil resource of around 400 million barrels across the multiple plays that the well is testing.

Pantheon's CEO is Jay Cheatham He is the manager of Pantheon Alaska Petroleum Operating LLC, per Alaska Department of Commerce corporation and licensing records.

- KAY CASHMAN

See full story in Jan. 20 issue of Petroleum News, available online Friday, Jan. 18, at www.PetroleumNews.com