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Oil patch insider: Oil Search releases early drilling results; Pantheon talks strategy, more North Slope wells planned
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
In a fourth quarter report for the period ending Dec. 31, Oil Search released positive preliminary results for this winter’s drilling of the Pikka B well on Alaska’s North Slope.
The Pikka B appraisal well (see related Oil Search story with map starting on page 1 of this issue) has penetrated the Nanushuk formation and successfully encountered hydrocarbons, in line with pre-drill expectations, the company said Jan. 22.
The well reached a depth of 3,934 feet on Jan. 10.
Peter Botten, Oil Search’s managing director, was quoted as saying, “The early results from the Pikka B well are very encouraging. … The top Nanushuk reservoir was encountered slightly high to expectations and a core has been successfully acquired over a 120 foot interval. Early interpretation of the core indicates a hydrocarbon-saturated, high porosity sand. The forward plan is to acquire an additional 330 feet of core prior to sidetracking the well at the end of January.”
Botten said the Pikka B and C wells being drilled this winter “could confirm up to 250 million barrels of additional 2C resource and will help define the optimal well design for our multi-year drilling program for the Pikka unit development.”
In its fourth quarter highlights, Oil Search said, “preparations to exercise the company’s fixed price option with Armstrong … progressed well during the quarter,” referring to the company’s option to acquire the other half of Armstrong and GMT’s working interest for $450 million, which would give Oil Search 51 percent. The option runs through June 30.
- KAY CASHMAN
Pantheon, Great Bear deal closes; unveils additional drilling plans The North Slope of Alaska’s latest player, London-based Pantheon Resources Plc, said Jan. 21 that it closed on its acquisition of two wholly owned subsidiaries of Great Bear Petroleum Operating LLC - Great Bear Petroleum Ventures I and II. The 250,000-plus acres of state of Alaska leases, 1,000 square miles of 3-D seismic and two discovery wells that are part of the deal will be operated by the company’s newly formed Alaska subsidiary, Pantheon Alaska Petroleum Operating LLC.
In a presentation at a general meeting in which the 51/49 percent merger was approved, Pantheon unveiled additional exploration plans for 2020-21 and beyond, and said its strategy in Alaska was “to prove up acreage … and sell at a significant premium to a larger company.”
Exploration includes Talitha Market reports based on statements by Pantheon and broker Arden Partners Plc said this year’s Alaska exploration includes a flow test of Great Bear’s 2015 Alkaid well (75 percent working interest), plus participation in the Winx 1 exploration well (10 percent) to be spud in the first half of February (see initial Pantheon story in the Jan. 20 issue of Petroleum News).
Pantheon’s general meeting presentation said 2020 drilling will include the Talitha well, a redrill of the 1986 ARCO Alaska discovery well, Pipeline State No. 1. Pantheon now 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.”
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.
Theta, Megrez, Phecda, Tania, Alula exploration In “2020/21+” Pantheon lists exploration wells it would like to drill on leases where it now has between 75 and 90 percent working interest, including Theta’s Kuparuk and Brookian (Nanushuk) zones.
Also listed for this time period are the Megrez, Tania and Alula wells near the trans-Alaska oil pipeline corridor and the Dalton Highway, and Phecda, a possible extension of the Alkaid discovery.
Great Bear holds the “option to increase its working interest to 20 percent upon success, for 20 percent of the drilling costs,” Pantheon said.
Founded in 2005, Pantheon Resources Plc currently has five employees and 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.
- KAY CASHMAN
Winx 1 gets final permit The Winx 1 well got its final major permit, Otto Energy LLC said Jan. 18.
While Great Bear is the operator of record with a 10 percent working interest in the exploratory well, the actual operator and lead working interest owner is Captivate Energy Alaska Inc., an 88 Energy Ltd. company.
The well is being funded by Captivate, Otto, Red Emperor Resources Ltd and Pantheon.
Otto also said the 11-mile ice road construction is progressing well with rig mobilization planned for early February and spudding set for mid-February.
The permit to drill was approved by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
Winx-1 is about four miles east of the Armstrong/Repsol Horseshoe 1/1A well (now operated by Oil Search) that significantly extended the highly successful Nanushuk play fairway to the south. Winx-1 will target gross best estimate prospective resource of 400 million barrels of oil across multiple stacked objectives, including the Nanushuk, the primary target.
- KAY CASHMAN
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