88 Energy Ltd (LON:88E) says it is on schedule to spud the Icewine-2 appraisal well later this month.
In February, the company secured a drilling contractor hiring the Arctic Fox rig.
Ground operations began last month, and the company is now advancing to final permit approvals and it is awaiting the delivery of additional pieces of equipment.
The explorer told investors that it expects to start stimulation operations and flow testing of the HRZ shale in June-July.
88 Energy’s update came as part of the group’s quarterly activities report.
It also highlighted the review of the conventional prospectivity of its acreage in Alaska’s North Slope, which yielded estimates of 1.5bn barrels of the gross mean prospective resources - which gives 88 Energy 1.1bn barrels net.
Additionally, the company completed an oversubscribed A$17mln share placing to domestic, international, institutional and sophisticated investors.