The Alaskan North Slope is the location for the Project Phoenix in which 88 Energy (LON:88E) has a 75.2% working interest.
The group’s Hickory-1 has up to six conventional reservoir targets that are expected to be appraised.
In an Operations Update just issued by the company it has declared that Hickory-1 successfully intersected and drilled the SMV-A, B and C reservoirs.
Oil shows have been noted by the initial interpretation of logging-while-drilling data, which also showed elevated mud gas readings, high resistivity signatures and crossover of neutron density curves indicating potential hydrocarbon pay.
The current depth of the Hickory-1 exploration well is over 8,820 feet.
The work is ongoing and will take another 3-5 days, with a Target Depth of 11,000 feet.
Project Phoenix
Project Phoenix is located on the central North Slope of Alaska and encompasses approximately 82,846 gross acres.
It is situated on-trend to recent discoveries by Pantheon Resources Plc (LSE: PANR) in multiple, newly successful play types across top, slope and bottom-set sands of the Mid Schrader Bluff, Canning and Seabee Formations.
Independent mapping has demonstrated that these plays extend into the Phoenix acreage.
Project Phoenix holds an estimated unrisked conventional total of 647MMbbl of prospective oil resources (mean unrisked, net to 88E), independently assessed by Lee Keeling and Associates in Q3 2022.
The acreage has been significantly de-risked by the recent Pantheon drilling and flow tests on their adjacent acreage to the North, coupled with data from Icewine-1 well logs (encountered 380 ft of net oil pay within SMD sands) and a modern 3D seismic data set (FB3D).
Analyst Opinion
James Mccormack at Cenkos Securities noted that the £125m capitalised group had a A$17.5m Placing in February, which leaves it able to cover its required working capital and overheads for the year ahead.
He rates the group’s shares, currently 0.52p, as a Buy.
