The Trans-Alaska pipeline brings oil from the North Slope down to the port of Valdez.

88 Energy leases drill for Alaska

BARROW, September 10, 2015 – Australian operator 88 Energy has just secured a drill rig for its Icewine onshore well project near Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay.

Alaska Native corporation Kuukpik Drilling has agreed to lease Kuukpik Rig-5, a winterized rig with a mast rated to around 181 tonnes. The rig has drilled wells over the slope, including the Barrow Ice Fields and at an island in the Beaufort Sea.

The Icewine-1 well is due to be spudded in October, and is estimated to hold 492 million barrels in mean unrisked prospective resources.

“With the spud date for Icewine #1 fast approaching, it is great to have finalised a rig contract with Kuukpik. We are now fully funded, with a rig. The last of the permits required are also falling into place such that spud of the well remains on track for mid October,” 88 Energy’s managing director Dave Wall said in a statement released on Wednesday.

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