London-based Pantheon Resources Plc 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 eight and a half 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.
As of 10 p.m. GMT on Jan. 23, operator Great Bear Pantheon was drilling ahead at a depth of 1,874 feet.
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 with approximately 1,300 feet of reservoir thickness.
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 and Talitha wells 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.
There is a fracking unit and flow back testing equipment at Talitha A. Testing operations commenced over the weekend of Jan. 22 and 23, and will start 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. (Testing starts at the deepest level and moves up.)
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.
Alkaid 2 well next
Jay Cheatham, CEO of Pantheon Resources, said this winter’s program of simultaneous operations at both Theta West 1 and Talitha A is a “first” for Pantheon.
“Following these wells, we intend to drill the Alkaid 2 well in spring/summer 2022 which, if successful, can commence production soon thereafter. These wells test very large targets and have the potential to be very material for all shareholders,” Cheatham said.
“The spudding of the Theta West 1 well marks another important day for Pantheon shareholders. As happened last year, our contractors have built the ice roads and drilling pads safely and on schedule. This has enabled us to have our equipment on both locations by mid-January, maximizing our time to complete our planned two well winter campaign,” he said.
Throughout the Pantheon presentation, company officials pointed to the fact that Great Bear Pantheon’s projects are located near, adjacent to and underneath the trans-Alaska oil pipeline infrastructure - “a major commercial advantage over most other pre-development projects regionally.”
The company’s leases are all on state land and not close to any especially environmentally sensitive habitat, was also noted.
Finally, company officials also talked about their objective of carbon neutral production by reinjecting exhaust (carbon dioxide) back into the ground (see slide regarding this project in the pdf and print versions of this issue of Petroleum News).
