88 Energy refining Icewine prospects
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Processing of new 3-D seismic is providing new insights into the locations of rock bodies with reservoir potential, company says
Alan Bailey Petroleum News
Australia-based company 88 Energy has issued a report, saying that the company is in the final stages of interpreting new 3-D seismic data for its Icewine project on the North Slope south of Prudhoe Bay. The company says the processing and interpretation of the seismic data are providing new insights into the locations within potential reservoir strata of discrete “geobodies” that appear to have favorable oil reservoir characteristics.
Prospects and leads Within the Icewine project area, which straddles the Dalton Highway, the company had already identified a series of prospects and leads, a couple of which are known from previous drilling to hold oil. The refinement of prospect delineation using the seismic data is now enabling the company to adjust its estimates of potential oil resources in the prospects. The prospects lie in a range of rock formations, including the upper Cretaceous Schrader Bluff formation, the upper Cretaceous Seabee formation and the lower Cretaceous Torok formation.
The report says that results from rock trending models and the seismic processing suggest that the Torok may have better than expected reservoir quality - one concern has been the potential degradation of reservoir quality in the more deeply buried rocks, including the Torok.
As a consequence of the insights obtained from the seismic data 88 Energy has increased its estimate of oil resources in the Icewine project area to a mean of 2,896 million barrels.
Icewine wells Burgundy Xploration is partnering with 88 Energy in the Icewine project. And Accumulate Energy Alaska is 88 Energy’s operating company in Alaska. The partnership, which is pursuing both conventional and unconventional oil resources, drilled the Icewine 1 well in 2015 and the Icewine 2 well in 2017, with both wells being drilled from the Franklin Bluff gravel pad off the Dalton Highway.
Rock core from the Icewine 1 well demonstrated a “liquids rich resource play” in the HRZ, a prolific North Slope oil source rock, 88 Energy said. Icewine 2, designed as a follow-up appraisal well, was fracture stimulated and flow tested. The company says that it is now completing further evaluation of the results, prior to the launch of a farm-out process in early 2019, to seek funding for additional work.
The western blocks The company is also participating in a drilling project planned for the coming winter in what are termed the “western blocks,” a set of four leases close to the Pikka/Horseshoe or Narwhal trend, where there have been major oil discoveries in the Nanushuk formation. 88 Energy says that it and its partners, Otto Energy Ltd. and Red Emperor Resources, are funding the well and that the companies have posted a $3 million performance bond for the project with the state of Alaska.
As previously reported in Petroleum News, Great Bear Petroleum Operating LLC, holder of a 10 percent interest in the leases, has filed a plan of operations for drilling the Winx No.1 well, targeting a Nanushuk prospect in the leases.
Yukon Gold 88 Energy has also acquired a 100 percent interest in 14,194 acres of leases, referred to as Yukon Gold, on state land adjacent the border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The company is evaluating the findings from an historic discovery well, the Yukon Gold No. 1, in the area, 88 Energy said. The company acquired 3-D seismic on the leases in early 2018 and expects results from this in the fourth quarter of this year.
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