88 Energy Limited ("88 Energy" or the "Company", ASX:88E, AIM 88E) is pleased to provide the following update related to operations for the currently drilling Charlie-1 appraisal well, on the North Slope of Alaska.
Highlights
· Charlie-1 appraisal well drilling commenced
Detail
88 Energy confirms that the Charlie-1 appraisal well commenced drilling at 0600 on the 2nd March 2020, Alaska time.
For further details please see the latest corporate presentation available on the Company website.
Managing Director of 88 Energy, Dave Wall, stated: "The Charlie-1 well has been four years in the making for 88 Energy, beginning in 2016 when we first acquired 2D seismic over our Project Icewine acreage. Since that time, the Company has reprocessed legacy 2D seismic (2017), undertaken a targeted acreage expansion and then shot modern 3D seismic (2018) before farming down (2019). A prospect of this calibre in a frontier region requires significant time and effort to come to fruition and we are optimistic that success is just around the corner."
About the Charlie-1 Appraisal Well
The Charlie-1 appraisal well has been designed as a step out appraisal of a well drilled in 1991 by BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc called Malguk-1. Malguk-1 encountered oil shows with elevated resistivity and mud gas readings over multiple horizons during drilling but was not tested due to complications towards the end of operations, which resulted in lack of time before the close of the winter drilling season. It was also drilled using vintage 2D seismic, which was insufficient to adequately determine the extent of any of the prospective targets encountered.
88 Energy subsequently undertook revised petrophysical analysis, which identified what is interpreted as bypassed pay in the Malguk-1 well. 88E also completed acquisition of modern 3D seismic in 2018, in order to determine the extent of the discovered oil accumulations. Charlie-1 will intersect seven stacked prospects, four of which are interpreted as oil bearing in Malguk‑1 and are therefore considered appraisal targets. 88 Energy will operate Charlie-1, via its 100% owned subsidiary Accumulate Energy Alaska, Inc, with cost of the well to be funded by Premier Oil Plc up to US$23m under a recent farm-out agreement. Drilling is scheduled to commence in February 2020 with flow testing anticipated to conclude in April 2020. The total Gross Mean Prospective Resource across the seven stacked targets to be intersected by Charlie-1 is 1.6 billion barrels of oil (480 million barrels net to 88E). Refer announcement dated 23rd August 2019.