88 Energy to drill 652m barrel oil target in Alaska

88 Energy looks set to tap its Merlin-2 well that it says is prospective for some 652 million barrels of oil, after inking a deal with Doyon Drilling to use the company’s Arctic Fox rig to test the well at its Project Peregrine in the North Slope of Alaska. The company says the appraisal well has been independently assessed to have a geological success rate of 56 per cent.

The well is on-track to be spudded in early 2022.

The Merlin-2 appraisal well follows a recently completed drilling campaign where the nearby Merlin-1 well identified a suite of stacked sequences in the N18, N19 and N20 reservoirs in the well-endowed Nanushuk formation.

Management says the sands in the N19 reservoir represent a previously unmapped target with a strong hydrocarbon signature.

The company is now set to target the trio of sequences with its Merlin-2 well that is planned for a depth of 8,000 feet.

88 Energy says it anticipates higher quality and thicker reservoirs in the Merlin-2 well compared to its predecessor.

88 Energy Managing Director, Ashley Gilbert, said:“We are delighted to be working with Doyon for the upcoming drilling of the Merlin-2 appraisal well in early 2022. The Artic Fox is one of the premier rigs on the North Slope and a rig which 88 Energy knows well, having utilised it in previous drilling operations.”

“Permitting and planning is already underway and we look forward to providing additional details in relation to the Merlin-2 appraisal well in the coming months.”

The company says the results from the previously drilled Merlin-1 were loaded into a fertile new prospective resource estimate for the project that incorporated the N18, N19 and N20 reservoir intervals from the Merlin-2 appraisal well.

Independent oil and gas reservoir evaluation company, ERCE Australia, says the un-risked net entitlement mean total prospective resource estimate for Peregrine now stands at a healthy 1.6 billion barrels of oil.

Project Peregrine covers an extensive area of over 195,000 acres of land and is located in close proximity to notable oil discoveries.

Super-major oil powerhouse ConocoPhillips recently reported between 750 million and 800 million barrels of recoverable oil at its Willow prospect, some 70 kilometres away.

If 88 Energy can follow up the success of Merlin-1 with a solid drilling campaign at Merlin-2 well, the company could be set for a lively new year.

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