88 Energy’s Project Icewine continues to show significant oil prospectivity

88 Energy (ASX:88E) has provided an update related to ongoing work on its conventional prospect portfolio at Project Icewine, located on the Central North Slope, Alaska.

Significant conventional prospectivity has been identified on the recently acquired 2D and 3D seismic across the Project Icewine acreage where 2.2 billion barrels of oil potential has been delineated (net mean prospective resource). A farm-out process is currently underway, with a deal targeted prior to 2018 year end.

The processing of the Icewine 3D seismic, that was acquired in the first quarter of 2018, has now entered its final phase, with interpretation of the inversion product largely complete.

This inversion product has been integrated into the mapping effort and has allowed prediction of hydrocarbon saturation in the shallow Schrader sequences as well as predicting where best reservoir quality is likely to be encountered in both the Schrader and deeper Torok sequences.

Each of these horizons has been penetrated by historic wells on the Project Icewine acreage, proving the presence of oil saturated sandstones coincident with many of the mapped prospects, which consequently are regarded as discoveries in their own right.

A key risk factor is the reservoir quality, particularly in the deeper Seabee and Torok formations, due to depth of burial and compaction. However, based on the regional Brookian porosity / permeability trend and results from petrophysical analysis, the potential for productive reservoir has been identified in both the Schrader and Torok sequence at Icewine.

Previously, mapping had been undertaken utilising a conservative “slab” approach, which calculates volume based on areal extent using amplitude response combined with an estimate of average reservoir thickness. The post inversion product has allowed mapping in a more robust fashion, identifying the discrete geobodies with more favourable reservoir characteristics and improved net to gross in three dimensions.

To summarise, the highlights include:

• Icewine 3D seismic inversion substantially complete for both shallow and deep horizons.
  
  • Discrete geobodies (containers) are now mapped in three dimensions in the Schrader (topset) and Torok (basin floor fan) horizons.
    
  • Increase in gross mean prospective resource to 2,896 MMBO (2,211 MMBO net to 88E).
    
• Updated rock trending models combined with 3D seismic inversion products highlights better than expected potential reservoir quality within the Torok.
  

Dave Wall, Managing Director of 88E, commented on the update: “The evolution of the conventional portfolio continues to result in positive revisions to the already large potential identified. Additionally, the dataset is becoming more robust with each completed phase of processing and interpretation, which bodes well for the ongoing farm-out process.

“Increased potential has been quantified in the two primary target zones: the Schrader, which contains a shallow topset play similar to that in which most of the recent large discoveries have been made on the North Slope; and the Torok, where Project Icewine is favourably located compared to where the recent USGS upgrade identified the core part of the Torok play, which remains largely underexplored on the Slope.”