88 Energy Makes 1 Billion Barrel Oil Announcement

88 Energy Limited has reported a maiden, independently certified prospective resource estimate of 1.03 billion barrels of oil - on a gross mean, unrisked basis - for the Project Icewine East development, which the business holds a 75 percent net working interest in.

According to the company, significant prospective resources have been estimated across all the recently mapped Shelf Margin Delta (SMD), Slope Fan System (SFS), Basin Floor Fan (BFF) and Kuparuk (KUP) play fairways on the Icewine East acreage.

The maiden independent prospective resource report was completed by Lee Keeling and Associates, Inc (LKA). The initial total prospective resource follows a period of review of an extensive data suite that included seismic data, well logs from Icewine-1 and nearby wells adjacent to the Icewine East acreage, recent petrophysical analysis and mapping, 88 Energy highlighted. LKA is an independent U.S. based expert petroleum geoscience and engineering consulting firm which has significant and recent experience in providing resource estimates globally, as well as more specifically in Alaska.

“This maiden, independently certified 1.03 billion barrels of oil resource estimate is a great result for 88E and its shareholders,” 88 Energy Managing Director Ashley Gilbert said in a company statement.

“Resources of this magnitude present our shareholders with significant upside potential and opportunity, which is why we continue to focus on our Alaskan portfolio and believe significant value exists in our Icewine East acreage,” Gilbert added in the statement.

“Importantly, it is worth noting that the Icewine East acreage has been significantly de-risked by the recent Pantheon drilling and flow tests on their adjacent acreage, as well as data from the Icewine-1 well logs, and more recently the leased Franklin Bluffs 3D data set. This work substantially increases our confidence in unlocking the potential of the Icewine East acreage and is by far, the most compelling data suite the company has analyzed ahead of drilling any well,” Gilbert continued.

The managing director went on to note that full interpretation of the recently licensed FB3D data is ongoing, including AVO analysis, to define “sweet spots” for each play and determine optimal future exploration and appraisal drilling locations, the first of which Gilbert said is planned for 2023.

Back in June, 88 Energy announced that a licensing agreement had been signed with SAExploration, Inc. for use of its Franklin Bluffs 3D seismic survey data (FB3D), which 88 Energy noted covers a “significant area over the Project Icewine East leases”. In May, 88 Energy revealed that a third-party evaluation of the Icewine East mapping was complete.

88 Energy’s Icewine project is one of several the company has on the Alaska North Slope. Others include the Peregrine, Umiat, and Yukon projects, all of which 88 Energy has a 100 percent interest in.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com