Tangiers Petroleum boasts 'best of breed' Alaskan shale oil find

Shares in Tangiers Petroleum leapt after it revealed a "best of breed" shale oil find in Alaska at its majority owned Icewine project.

The AIM oil tiddler said an independent resource report had identified an estimated 8bn barrels of potential oil in place.

Of this, Tangiers reported there was an estimated net mean recoverable unconventional potential for the company of 431m barrels of oil, with a 41% probability of geologic success.

Managing director Dave Wall said he believed the report indicated even larger upside potential if the entire project area proved to be productive or the mean recovery factor proved ultimately higher than that currently estimated.

"The validation of the exceptional resource concentration is particularly significant as this is a first order driver of well performance in successful liquids rich shale plays like the Eagle Ford and Bakken.

"The company anticipates being able to provide guidance on the conventional oil potential at the project later in the year and looks forward to insights from the imminent drilling program by Great Bear immediately to the north of our acreage."

Tangiers, which has an 87.5% working interest in Icewine and will be operator of 99,360 acres, said a three-well drilling campaign to test unconventional and conventional targets on adjoining acreage was "imminent".