88 Energy gets Project Icewine set for farm-out

88 Energy has increased its interest in the ground around its Charlie-1 test oil well at its Project Icewine on Alaska’s lucrative North Slope. The Perth company says it will table a resource estimate for the project within weeks which should see farm-out discussions on Project Icewine kick into high gear

It is also chasing a year-end closing on a farm-out deal to fund an initial test well on the neighbouring Peregrine oil project that was acquired by 88 Energy earlier this year in an all-scrip takeover of XCD Energy. 

According to 88 Energy, multiple players have trawled through the data room and several non-binding offers have been tabled as the company prepares to secure funding via farm-in for two test wells at Peregrine early in the new year.

The Peregrine project houses two key prospects, the Merlin and Harrier prospects which were recently tuned up by the company’s geophysicists.

Management said the seismic signatures of the Nanushuk Formation oil reservoir target at each prospect compares favourably with seismic across the known oil fields immediately to the north.

The company cited a number of similarities in the seismic data between its Merlin prospect and the 750 million-barrel Willow oil field operated by ConocoPhillips that sits only 25km or so to the north.  According to the company, the seismic data also suggests similarities between its Harrier prospect and Conoco’s second oil discovery at Harpoon, southeast of Willow.

88 Energy said it has increased its working interest from 30 per cent to 75 per cent in approximately 40 per cent of the gross Icewine project leases that sit immediately east of Peregrine.  The increase in net acres to the company is around 85,000 which will no doubt have a positive impact on 88 Energy’s net resource volumes when the independent assessment is completed.

88 Energy technocrats have been re-working the log data and core samples from the Charlie well to tease out some improved percentages of oil present in the samples from the Torok Formation target. 

The Charlie-1 test well, where 88 Energy now holds a 75\ per cent working interest previously penetrated reservoir sandstones in seven stacked targets and shale in one target.  Whilst no flow tests were undertaken, gas-condensate samples were recovered from the Torok formation below 3,200m depth using a downhole wireline sampling tool.

88 Energy Managing Director, Dave Wall said:

"We are very pleased with how the Company is currently positioned and look forward to closing out several material items in the near-term.”

With 88 Energy now fixated on getting a well or two down in the next 6 months, it would be something of a coup for the company if it can get a fresh set of resource numbers tabled and a couple of farm-out deals done and dusted by Christmas.  

Locking in a drilling partner with deep pockets and an equally bullish conviction about the prospectivity of the lucrative North Slope in Alaska will no doubt be a priority now for the ASX-listed junior.

Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au