Pantheon prepares to test Alkaid well
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London-based company that merged 51/49 with Great Bear subsidiaries reports Winx 1 exploration well drilling progress
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
Great Bear Petroleum Operating recently filed an amendment to its 2016 lease plan of operations with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, to begin re-entry and testing of the Alkaid 1 well that was drilled, cased and suspended by Great Bear in 2015. Re-entry is expected to take place between March 1 and March 5, per the filing.
The well is on a lease that is part of 10 contiguous leases west of the Dalton Highway and five leases straddling the highway - the leases are south of Prudhoe Bay and near the trans-Alaska oil pipeline corridor.
At that time the company said it was unable to test the Alkaid 1 well in 2015 because of flooding on the highway and then after that former Gov. Bill Walker reneged on the state’s promise to pay exploration credits for a portion of exploratory costs - an action that hit independents such as Great Bear particularly hard, especially with oil prices continuing to fall.
Initially, in fact, a Great Bear lease plan of operations said the company hoped to drill three wells in the Dalton Highway lease block in 2015 - Alkaid 1, Phecda 1 and Talitha 1. The proposed locations are southwest of the two vertical wells Great Bear drilled in 2012.
New exploration well in 2019? The work commitment associated with a mid-2018 three-year term extension from the division for leases in this block consisted of re-entering and testing the Alkaid well and drilling a new exploration well in the block in 2019.
The acreage involved was recently acquired by London-based Pantheon Resources as part of its 51/49 acquisition of two Great Bear Petroleum Operating subsidiaries, Great Bear Petroleum Ventures I and II.
Pantheon is building a 2.5-mile ice road from the Dalton Highway and a 1.35-acre ice pad at the wellsite to support operations. A rig will be brought in to re-enter the suspended Alkaid 1 well, conduct a number of tests at different intervals, and plug and abandon the well unless it proves capable of economic production, Great Bear said in its filing, which was signed by the company’s top executive in Alaska, Patrick Galvin, who has assumed his Great Bear position and title with Pantheon.
So what about the promised 2019 exploration well in the Dalton Highway block?
In its announcement of the recent deal with Great Bear, Pantheon said, “In the event that any wells are not drilled before the deadlines it would likely result in default; however it is believed, but not guaranteed, that the state of Alaska would grant a cure period of one year. It is also believed that other pro-active strategies are available for negotiation with the state of Alaska in this situation.”
The schedule Pantheon proposed for the Alkaid well program was as follows:
* Ice road construction Feb. 12-26.
* Move in and rig up Feb. 26-March 5.
* Alkaid 1 re-entry and testing; plug and abandon March 5-April 15.
* Rig down and move out April 19-25.
Drilling underway at Winx 1 exploration well There is an exploration well being drilled on another block of Pantheon/Great Bear leases. Pantheon said the Winx 1 well was spud on Feb. 15, and as of Feb. 17 drilling had reached a depth of 880 feet. In merging with Great Bear, Pantheon has a 10 percent interest in the well.
Located a little less than 4 miles east of the Armstrong Horseshoe 1/1A discovery well that significantly extended the successful Nanushuk play fairway to the south, the Winx 1 is targeting the Nanushuk formation as its primary objective. Pantheon said the drill bit will also pass through secondary targets - the “Seabee turbidite and Torok fan.”
The well, which will be drilled to a total vertical depth of 6,500 feet, is operated by Captivate Energy Alaska Inc., an 88 Energy Ltd. company, and the majority interest owner of the four independents invested in the well.
Jay Cheatham, CEO of Pantheon, said Feb. 18 that Pantheon was “very fortunate to have the ability, through a back in right, to double our working interest to 20 percent within 6 months” of well completion, temporary abandonment or suspension.
More exploration plans In a recent presentation at a general meeting in which the 51/49 percent merger was approved, Pantheon unveiled additional exploration plans for 2020-21 and beyond, saying its strategy in Alaska was “to prove up acreage … and sell at a significant premium to a larger company.”
Pantheon said 2020 drilling will include the Talitha well, which is a re-drill of the 1986 ARCO Alaska discovery well, Pipeline State No. 1. Pantheon holds a 90 percent working interest in that lease.
The new well will appraise oil sands seen in the adjoining plugged and abandoned ARCO well and “test a topset exploration play analogous to recent major discoveries in the area,” Pantheon said.
Extraction techniques “now far surpass what was available in the 1980’s,” Pantheon noted, saying some 900 million barrels of oil in place had been discovered in three zones plus a 1.7 billion exploratory upside.
In 2020-21 and beyond Pantheon would like to drill exploration wells in leases where it now has between 75 and 90 percent working interest, including a well called Theta, which will test Kuparuk and Brookian (Nanushuk) zones.
Also listed for this time period are the Megrez, Tania and Alula wells near the Dalton Highway, as well as Phecda, a possible extension of an Alkaid discovery.
Founded in 2005, Pantheon is listed on the AIM Stock Exchange, a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that allows smaller, less-viable companies to float shares with a more flexible regulatory system than that of the main market.
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