Pantheon Resources PLC (AIM:PANR, OTC:PTHRF) said blockages to the flows from its Alkaid#2 well in Alaska were due to sand introduced during the fracking process, not formation sand, and should be cleared during a clean-up of the well bore.
A unit has now arrived on site to start the clean out but this will mean conservative pumping rates until the process completes.
Flow testing will resume when the clean-up is finished, said Pantheon in a statement.
Jay Cheatham, chief executive, added: "I reiterate my previous comments that the blockages are inconvenient and have caused us delays, but the potential of Alkaid #2 is unchanged.
“As is always the case, we cannot make a definitive assessment of the ultimate commerciality of the well until flow testing operations have concluded.”
Pantheon has also added to its acreage in Alaska with the acquisition of approximately another 40,000 acres on the North Slope.
The new leases are strategically positioned in two areas contiguous or adjacent to the company's current acreage on its northwestern boundary, it said, covering the extension of the Theta West project, and east, capturing the area adjacent to the junction of the Alkaid unit and the Talitha unit.
Pantheon added it had a competitive advantage in bidding for this acreage given its sole use of the proprietary 3D seismic which covers the leases.
Its winning bids were at a price of US$28.00 per acre, which it noted was significantly lower than the average for other successful tenders in the sale.
The leases come with a 10-year initial term, an annual rental of US$10 per acre and a royalty rate of either 12.5% (four leases, 5,760 acres) or 16.67% (13 leases, 34,240 acres).
Bob Rosenthal, Pantheon’s technical director, added:: "Acquiring these leases was a highly successful outcome for Pantheon and importantly, the acreage is in very close proximity to the established export infrastructure.
"Our team has spent over a decade working this area, enhanced recently with advanced geophysical evaluation and the analysis of the huge dataset gained in our successful drilling of the Theta West #1, Talitha #A and Alkaid #2 wells this year.
"The new Theta West acreage is in the same trap as our existing resource and the new Alkaid acreage covers a mapped extension of the Shelf Margin Deltaic (SMD) and Alkaid anomalies.
"The Theta West acreage is structurally shallower and updip from the Theta West #1 well and should yield better reservoir properties. Accordingly, we expect to report a material upgrade to our Theta West project resource in due course."
Pantheon's management estimates it has over 23bn barrels of oil in place and over two billion barrels of recoverable resources on its acreage in Alaska.