After recently reaching a total depth of 8,450 feet at the Theta West #1 well on the Alaska North Slope, Pantheon Resources has now completed the flow test on the Slope Fan System, a Brookian aged horizon at Talitha #A.
This was a secondary target in a suboptimal location in the well. The company noted that it has perforated two separate five-foot intervals at 8160-8165 ft and 7855.7860 ft, within two distinct circa 50 ft sand bodies.
The two intervals were stimulated and flow tested together, producing high quality circa 35-to-38-degree API oil and averaging 45 barrels of oil per day (bopd) over a three-day test period.
On the final day of testing, the well was flowing at a sustained rate of approximately 32 bopd from this combined 10 ft of perforations, which is highly encouraging given production wells on the Alaska North Slope are drilled horizontally, which would typically result in materially higher flow rates.
This is the first indication of producible oil in the Slope Fan on Pantheon’s acreage and has significant implications for future resource and recoverable oil estimates.
The two SFS lobes are in two distinct trapping systems and suggest very good reservoir properties.
The company’s initial analysis suggests that the deeper of the two lobes extend below the Alkaid Deep anomaly and will be assessed in the upcoming Alkaid #2 well, planned for summer 2022.
Pantheon is encouraged by these results and will provide an estimate of resource and recoverable oil in due course, once the analysis is completed and the Talitha test results are fully integrated into resource assessments and future appraisal plans.
“Once again we have an excellent result from the Talitha #A testing. Similar to the Basin Floor Fan (BFF), we had two goals in testing the SFS: (i) to prove we had moveable oil, and (ii) to prove high-quality oil. We have achieved both of these,” said Jay Cheatham, Pantheon Resources CEO.
“I was on location in the flow back trailer and collected the crude personally, which is indeed light and sweet. We exceeded original expectations with the flow rates achieved from these two sand bodies. We now believe the Slope Fan extends east near the Dalton Highway giving us additional potential resource developable from gravel along the highway,” he added.
At Theta West #1, an error by a third-party contractor has delayed testing operations. A cement stage tool was improperly configured, placing cement inside the casing rather than outside casing as intended. Pantheon will undertake work to remove cement from within the casing, before performing a remedial cement squeeze job.
The company expects this work to be completed this week before conducting flow testing operations of the Basin Floor Fan. The issue has cost time and money, however the company does not believe this has compromised the reservoir potential in any way.
For more information visit www.pantheonresources.com
