88 Energy could be sitting on an estimated 283 million barrels of oil recoverable from its Canning prospect at the company’s Project Leonis in Alaska, according to its just released maiden, total net mean, unrisked prospective resource estimate.
The company’s unrisked net entitlement to the prospective oil resource comprises 3U (High) 469MMbbls, 2U (Best) 259MMbbls and 1U (Low) 136MMbbls with an estimated 33 per cent chance of success.
When combined with 88 Energy’s additional 381MMbbls unrisked net mean prospective resource entitlement estimated for its adjacent USB prospect, the total net mean prospective resource entitlement is 664MMbbls.
An unrisked prospective resource is a high-level estimate of oil and gas not yet tested by drilling. The measurement is based on assumptions and is used to set targets for companies to discover and advance resources through drilling and eventual flow testing.
With its combined prospective resource endowment of 664MMbbls, 88 Energy has become a multi-reservoir company of scale.
It is planning its Tiri-1 exploration well to test both the Canning and USB prospects in the first half of next year after current site selection is completed.
The Canning prospect was identified from an extensive data review that included recently re-processed and interpreted Storms 3D seismic data.
Along with other recently completed quantitative interpretations, including rock physics, amplitude versus offset (AVO) geophysics and seismic inversion, the review enabled 88 Energy to confirm significant prospectivity at both reservoir intervals.
AVO technology has played an important role in recent new discoveries on the Alaskan North Slope field and is now employed globally.
The data review identified a significant geological characteristic attributable to basin-wide erosion during the Mid Campanian epoch of the late Cretaceous, which created canyon-like scours in the Hue shale which underlies the Canning horizons.
The scours created space for high-energy, toe-of-slope turbidites, or poorly-sorted undersea landslide sequences, which now form a reservoir succession more than 100 metres thick. It extends across an area of about 43 square kilometres, providing the project with significant scale.
88 Energy managing director Ashley Gilbert said: “We are pleased to announce the maiden, internally estimated prospective resource estimate for the Canning prospect, which closely follows the successful bid for four new leases at Project Leonis in December 2024 with award expected in the first half of 2025. Looking ahead, our focus is firmly on advancing the Tiri-1 well at Project Leonis scheduled to drill in Q1 2026 as well as finalising funding to deliver a horizontal well test at Project Phoenix.”
88 Energy’s proposed Tiri-1 well site is strategically located within its Leonis acreage. It is 26km southwest of the community of Deadhorse at the centre of the renowned Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, discovered in 1967, and just 22km southeast of the southeastern margin of the Kuparuk Oil Field.
Tiri-1 also lies 22km north of the existing Alkaid Well in the recently-discovered Brookian sequence and is 41km north of the company’s Phoenix project Hickory-1 well discovery. The Hickory-1 discovery is beside the Dalton Highway and the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System, which also runs through the company’s Leonis project.
The Canning prospect remains untested by offset wells in its immediate vicinity but live oil shows have been logged in the Canning Formation in the Hemi Springs Unit 3 well.
The Hemi Springs well is a few kilometres east of the proposed Tiri-1 site and has demonstrated porosities of up to 28 per cent. Reservoir quality within the associated canyon-scour features are anticipated to be even higher.
Drilled in 1985, Hemi Springs targeted deeper reservoirs than the Canning and USB Formations and, without the benefit of modern seismic data, lead to overlooked low-resistivity payable oil.
The oil shows in the Hemi Springs mud logs correlate with extensive mapped oil potential and recent advances in understanding low-resistivity oil pay have unlocked substantial reserves across Alaska’s North Slope, as shown by the Willow and Pikka fields.
Additionally, the company says similar high net-to-gross turbidites are being produced from the Hue Shale scours in Conoco Phillips’ Tabasco field, 37km to the northwest.
Its favourable location, all but surrounded by potentially payable ground, and proximity to key infrastructure adds to historical data that supports Project Leonis’ compelling technical and commercial potential and enabled the identification of oil in the USB and Canning Formations.
88 Energy’s re-evaluation of previous wells led to the successful drilling and testing of the Hickory-1 well in its Phoenix project in 2023-2024, an approach that guided the re-evaluation of Project Leonis to identify and target untapped resources.
88 Energy has engaged exploration and production management company Fairweather LLC to kick off planning and permitting for its proposed Tiri-1 exploration well to test the USB and Canning reservoirs.
With drilling reliant on securing a farm-out partner, the company has commissioned Llamas and Bannister Energy Advisors to manage an active, re-launched and expanded farm-out process.
The recent expansion of Project Leonis’ acreage and the addition of the Canning Formation reservoir opportunity in such prime prospective real estate invigorates the project’s significant status as a cornerstone asset in the company’s energy portfolio.
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By Doug Bright
