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Plans for Hickory flow testing on track
88 Energy executes rig contract with All American Oilfield; prepares for exploration well flow test at Project Phoenix this winter
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
In a Sept. 5 ASX announcement, 88 Energy Limited said it has "executed" a rig contract for its Hickory No. 1 exploration well flow test at Project Phoenix on Alaska's North Slope, which is scheduled for the winter of 2023-24.
88 Energy said the rig contract is with All American Oilfield for the use of Rig-111.
"The execution of a rig contract is another important step as we advance towards the Hickory-1 well flow testing program planned for the 2023/2024 Alaskan winter operational season. We continue to be very encouraged by progress by our northern neighbor, Pantheon Resources, who recently announced a material, independently estimated, 2C contingent resource for the Lower Basin Floor Fan reservoir," 88 Energy CEO and Managing Director Ashley Gilbert was quoted as saying in the ASX announcement.
"The Basin Floor Fan reservoir was the deepest of the multiple hydrocarbon-bearing pay zones intersected as part of the Hickory-1 exploration well. This reservoir, along with our primary, high-priority SMD, Upper SFS and SFS targets, is planned to be flow tested as part of the upcoming program," Gilbert said.
In the ASX announcement, one of 88 Energy's highlights was "Hickory-1 well targeting 647 million barrels of oil." The company added the following cautionary footnote: "Mean unrisked resource -- Net Entitlement to 88 Energy. Refer announcement released to ASX on 23 August 2022. Resources estimated pre-Hickory-1 drilling."
In other highlights, 88 Energy said that post-well analysis of cores, mud gas isotubes and wireline data was ongoing, "with encouraging initial results demonstrating good correlation to migration and thermal maturity models."
Furthermore, the company said planning and permitting for the flow test is "on schedule with operations set to commence as early as possible in the upcoming Alaskan winter operational season."
A new strategy As previously reported in Petroleum News, through 88 Energy's Alaska subsidiary Accumulate Energy Alaska Inc., the Hickory No. 1 exploration well was spud on March 9 with the Nordic Calista Rig No. 2.
The well was part of Project Phoenix in the central North Slope. The company previously called the acreage Project Icewine East but changed the name to reflect a new strategy.
Originally envisioned as an unconventional HRZ play, "Project Phoenix is now focused on the proven oil-bearing conventional reservoirs that were identified during the drilling and logging of Icewine-1 and 2,"88 Energy said in a statement in December 2022.
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