88 Energy Ltd. has indicated in a series of reports on early test results from the remote Merlin-1 exploration well drilled last month that the company contacted three zones of shallow Nanushuk sands roughly 40 miles south of ConocoPhillips’ Willow prospect.
Drilled off of “sparse 2D seismic,” according to 88 managing director David Wall, the $12.6 million Merlin well reached a total depth of 5,267 feet and hit potential pay zones between approximately 3,400 feet and 5,100 feet. It is part of the company’s Project Peregrine in the southern portion of the NPR-A adjacent to the legacy Umiat prospect, which 88 Energy also recently acquired.
The Nanushuk formation sands encountered by 88 Energy are approximately 500 feet thicker than those hit by ConocoPhillips’ Willow wells, according to the company, and other potential oil and gas-bearing zones were hit as well.
Wall said in an April 5 statement that operational challenges prevented the company from collecting hydrocarbon samples in the two most promising Nanushuk zones but the early results already confirm that the Merlin well “has delivered by far the best outcome of any of the five wells drilled by 88 Energy in Alaska over the last six years.”
“Particularly encouraging is the apparent presence of oil in a zone that has not previously been targeted in the NPR-A,” Wall said further. “Whilst the potential volumetric size of this zone is not yet known, the formation could be extensive based on initial interpretation.”
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