88 Energy starts drilling Hickory-1 exploration well

88 Energy announced on Friday that Nordic Calista's Rig-2 has started drilling the Hickory-1 exploration well at Project Phoenix, on the North Slope of Alaska.

The AIM-traded company said Hickory-1 was designed to appraise up to six conventional reservoir targets within the SMD, SFS, BFF, and KUP reservoirs, with a total estimated oil reserve of 647 million barrels.

It said the primary targets for Hickory-1 were the three SMD reservoirs, SMD-C, -B, and -A, with SFS and BFF reservoirs considered secondary targets.

The KUP reservoir was a tertiary target, and would be drilled subject to remaining time in the season, borehole conditions, and other technical considerations.

The drilling process for Hickory-1 was expected to take four weeks, with the well planned to be initially drilled to 3,500 feet.

Surface casing would then be installed, and the blow-out preventer (BOP) system tested.

That process was expected to take up to two weeks collectively.

The drilling would then continue to a total depth of up to 12,500 feet, including logging while drilling, at which point wireline logging was scheduled.

Logging while drilling and mud logging would provide initial indications as to the prospectivity of the Hickory-1 targets.

The board said the wireline programme was specifically designed to collect essential data necessary to optimise the future flow testing programme.

That would include multiple side-wall coring runs and other specialised tools to enable detailed reservoir characterization.

“Flow testing of the Hickory-1 well is planned to be undertaken during the 2023-2024 winter season, subject to well results,” the 88 Energy board said in its statement.

“This provides ample time post-drilling to optimise the flow test program, design, permitting and implementation.”

At 1430 GMT, shares in 88 Energy were up 3.67% at 0.7p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.