Pantheon Resources PLC's (AIM:PANR, OTC:PTHRF) Alaskan acreage could be host to as much as 17.8bn barrels of crude oil, that’s according to the latest reservoir modelling work from Schlumberger.
The company, in a statement, told investors that Schlumberger has now completed its Phase One reservoir modelling project which is described as “extremely detailed and comprehensive” – comprising six months (over 1,000 hours) of work by the industry-leading consultant.
Significantly, the models will be incorporated into Pantheon’s data-room process as it seeks advance partnering efforts, the company said this will allow potential farm-in partners to have a greater understanding of the potential, characteristics and scale of the opportunities.
"The Schlumberger report and the derived model is a great result and an important tool that oil companies can use when evaluating our project in our data room,” said Pantheon chief executive Jay Cheatham in the statement. “The results further bolster our own confidence.”
Schlumberger assessed four distinct oil reservoirs within Pantheon’s current Alaskan footprint - Alkaid, the Slope Fan System, the Shelf Margin Deltaic, and the Basin Floor Fan system.
The consultant estimated a total of 17.8bn barrels of potential oil-in-place with some 10.9bn barrels seen in the Theta West area, 5.26bn seen in the Talitha Unit, and 1.67bn estimated in the Alkaid Unit.
"I have been beyond impressed with the quality of work and the attention to detail shown by the Schlumberger team,” noted Pantheon technical director Bob Rosenthal. “The amount of time and effort to develop this model is extraordinary."
He added: “It will significantly enhance the intended future farmout process as this model provides potential farm-in companies industry validation, confidence in the data and the project potential.
“Companies can use this giant model to manipulate parameters/assumptions for their own analysis. I can't wait to start working with them on the next phase of the project which will, amongst other modeling, predict overall reservoir recoveries.”
Estimating production, per well
Schlumberger also modelled potential production in each area, envisioning what a single horizontal well may possibly achieve per location.
It estimated that a single well at Alkaid could initially produce some 775 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and yield a total of 1.1mln barrels of a 30-year life span.
At Theta West it models a 1,060 bopd rate, for a total yield of 1.5mln barrels, and, at Talitha it estimates 791 bopd for a total of 1.2mln barrels per well.
Pantheon said Schlumberger’s modelling is “broadly in line” with its own in-house estimates which anticipate around 150 bopd per 1,000 feet of lateral reservoir exposure in horizontal wells.
It also noted that based on an assumption of a 10% recovery factor, the Schlumberger models suggest some 1.78bn barrels of recoverable resources could be available across the project.
Rosenthal said: “I believe our current estimate of 10% has the potential to be conservative based on what we are seeing at the moment and again remembering we are using unconventional technology on conventional reservoirs."
Alkaid-2 well update
Pantheon chief executive Cheatham also used today’s statement to tell investors that it was “a case of so far, so good” with the Alkaid-2 well, where an ongoing production testing programme has however been frustrated by operational delay as supply-chain complications have left the company awaiting flow results.
The company, back in October, flagged that clean-up operations would continue in order to clear the well.
Today, Pantheon said that it ‘utilized a coiled tubing unit (CTU) to remediate a sand blockage inside the horizontal production liner’ though noted that ‘ideally, a workover rig would have been used to remove the production tubing in a relatively straightforward operation to clear the blockage without the constraints of working inside the tubing’. Such a rig was not available, so the company had to resort to a “delicate and potentially less effective” method.
“Fortunately, the CTU was effective in clearing most, but not all, of the blockage and flow testing has resumed. The well is still early in the cleanup phase with encouraging initial results, As always however, the company cautions that despite early positive data, a definitive assessment of commerciality cannot be made until flow testing operations have concluded," the company added.