88 Energy pleased with progress at Charlie-1 well

88 Energy updated the market on operations for the currently-drilling Charlie-1 appraisal well on the North Slope of Alaska on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm confirmed that the well had reached a depth of 3,500 feet, explaining that casing would now be run as planned in the 12.25-inch hole, before drilling the 8.5-inch production hole.

It said the Charlie-1 appraisal well was designed as a step-out appraisal of a well drilled in 1991 by BP Exploration Alaska 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,” the 88 Energy board said in its statement.

“It was also drilled using vintage 2D seismic, which was insufficient to adequately determine the extent of any of the prospective targets encountered.”

The company said it subsequently undertook revised petrophysical analysis, which identified what was interpreted as bypassed pay in the Malguk-1 well.

It also completed the 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, with [the] cost of the well to be funded by Premier Oil up to $23m under a recent farm-out agreement.”

88 Energy said the drilling was scheduled to start in February, with flow testing anticipated to finish in April.

“The total gross mean prospective resource across the seven stacked targets to be intersected by Charlie-1 is 1.6 billion barrels of oil, [with] 480 million barrels net to 88 Energy.”

At 1502 GMT, shares in 88 Energy were up 8.23% at 0.95p.