88 Energy and Great Bear Pantheon are moving forward with their winter North Slope wells. Great Bear has already spud Theta West 1 and 88 Energy has finished its 111-mile snow road between KRU 2P and the Merlin 2 well location.
A third company, Eni US Operating, a subsidiary of Italian multinational Eni S.p.A., hasn’t yet made its intentions public about an offshore exploration well planned north of its Nikaitchuq unit for April.
In its 14th plan of development for the Nikaitchuq unit, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2022, operator Eni told Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas that facility upgrades will be completed to support a second Nikaitchuq North extended reach exploration well in second quarter 2022.
NN-02 was supposed to be drilled unless Eni requested an extension from the feds, which is did for two years. That extension runs out in April.
As of Feb. 1, no extension request had been filed.
Similar to NN-01 well
The Alaska Beaufort Sea prospect is in a 13-lease federal OCS unit, Harrison Bay block 6423, which is approximately 6 miles from the Spy Island Drillsite, or SID, in the state Nikaitchuq unit.
SID is a man-made, land-based gravel island, constructed in shallow (6 to 8 feet) coastal waters, approximately 3 miles north of Oliktok Point. SID is 100% owned and operated by Eni and supports the drilling and production from Eni’s Nikaitchuq unit.
The second Nikaitchuq North well will be similar to the first ultra-extended reach well, NN-01, in that it will be an S-shape wellbore into the target reservoir.
In Eni’s 13th plan of development for the Nikaitchuq unit the company told the division that it will do facility upgrades to support the NN-02 well, including a new six-slot well containment shelter and associated well conductors. The work was supposed to be done during the 13th POD period from Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021.
Geological target speculation
The seismic anomaly - the target of both Nikaitchuq North wells - was identified from 3D seismic. But in the public portion of the paperwork Eni filed with the state and feds, geological information about the Nikaitchuq North was not released.
However, Eni left hints elsewhere; specifically, in its oil discharge prevention and contingency plan application that appeared to be based on tapping the Jurassic Alpine sands, which would certainly qualify as an anomaly in the area.
Whatever the case, the 25,957 barrels per day in the contingency plan application could not be referring to the heavy Schrader Bluff oil produced from the Nikaitchuq unit that is known to extend a long way north because that oil can’t flow unassisted.
Also, the measured depth and angle of the well suggest one of the Jurassic sands.
A previous Nikaitchuq unit operator, Kerr-McGee and partner Armstrong, talked about the possibility of testing the Jurassic Nuiqsut sandstone and the Triassic Sag River sandstone to the north.
Merlin 2 still on track
Farther west in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, 88 Energy is moving ahead with its plans to drill Merlin 2 in its Peregrine Project. It will be using the Arctic Fox drilling rig and the company is still on track to spud its well in late February.
88 Energy is also continuing its polar bear monitoring, although the Merlin 2 drill site is more than 100 miles from the coast, so outside the normal range of the bears.
88 Energy told investors that Merlin 2 will be drilled east and downdip of Merlin 1, “in an area expected to display thicker reservoir sections along with higher permeability and porosity.”
The Merlin 2 drill site is to the southeast of Merlin 1 and closer to the shelf break.
Merlin 2’s total depth is expected to reach 8,000 feet, and “is targeting 652 million barrels of oil, in the highly prospective N18, N19 and N20 targets that were encountered in the successful Merlin 1 exploration well,” which was drilled in Project Peregrine in March 2021 to a depth of 5,267 feet.
Merlin 1, 88 Energy said, “demonstrated the presence of oil in these multiple stacked sequences within the Brookian Nanushuk formation.”
Project Peregrine encompasses approximately 195,000 contiguous acres in NPR-A. 88 Energy has a 100% working interest in the project.
Merlin 1 results
The Merlin 1 exploration well was spud in March 2021 with drilling operations completed in April 2021.
Interpretation of results was completed in August with post-well evaluation “successfully demonstrating the presence of oil in N20, N19 and N18 targets, with 41 feet of net log pay across the three reservoir intervals noted and geochemical analysis determining the oil to have an estimated API gravity between mid-30 to low-40 API,” 88 Energy said.
Pantheon also testing Talitha A
London-based Pantheon Resources said Jan. 24 that it spud its Alaska North Slope Theta West 1 well on Jan. 21 using the Nordic Calista Rig 3, as planned. Pantheon’s Alaska subsidiary Great Bear Pantheon holds a 100% interest in the well.
Prior to moving 8-1/2 miles west to the Theta West well location, the rig completed preparations for testing operations at the Talitha A well which included a plugging operation in the Kuparuk formation, which won’t be tested this year.
Theta West targets
Theta West 1 is targeting two primary targets:
1. the Upper Basin Floor Fan.
2. the Lower Basin Floor Fan.
These combined horizons, Pantheon estimates, hold 12.1 billion barrels of oil in place with an approximate 1.4 billion barrels of recoverable resource.
The top of the formation is expected at a depth of about 7,600 feet.
Pantheon said the plan is to drill to target depth, estimated at 9,200 feet, case the hole, and begin testing operations on both the Lower Basin Floor Fan and Upper Basin Floor Fan.
Vertical test wells
Both the Theta West 1 and Talitha A are vertical test wells.
Pantheon said the objective of winter drilling and testing at Theta West and testing at Talitha is to determine reservoir deliverability - not about maximizing flow rates, as future production wells will be drilled horizontally, not vertically.
Pantheon wants to establish/prove the movability and quality of the oil.
Talitha A testing operations commenced over the weekend of Jan. 22 and 23, and are starting from the lowest formation, the Lower Basin Floor Fan, before proceeding sequentially to the two shallower Slope Fans (which will be tested together) and the Shelf Margin Deltaic horizons.
A coiled tubing unit used for flow testing operations will mobilize to the location after fracking is finished.
Talitha A, which was drilled in 2021, encountered five independent oil horizons, including Kuparuk at the deepest level.
The company had a lot of problems in the Kuparuk zone last winter, but Pantheon executives said they think they understand now what went wrong. But with 2 billion barrels to test in the horizons above the Kuparuk, they have elected to drill a well sometime in the future to test the Kuparuk, likely choosing a better location for doing so.
Pantheon said independent “Volatiles Analysis” undertaken by Advanced Hydrocarbon Stratigraphy/Baker Hughes took 416 cuttings during the drilling of Talitha A over a 3,700 foot section covering the five horizons, with each and every sample confirming the presence of oil.
