88 Energy Limited (ASX:88E) completes drilling of Hickory-1 surface hole, Alaska

• 88 Energy (88E) successfully drills its Hickory-1 surface hole at its Phoenix project in Alaska to a depth of 3570 feet
• The company says surface casing has been installed and cemented and the blow-out preventer (BOP) system tested successfully
• Drilling will now progress in the well using Nordic Calista’s Rig-2, which aims to intersect three primary SMD targets and secondary SFS and BFF reservoir targets
• 88E expects to intersect the primary and secondary targets within the next two weeks, and it will then determine whether to drill ahead to a total depth of 12,500 feet
• 88E shares closed 9.09 per cent lower at 1.2 cents on Thursday afternoon

88 Energy (88E) has successfully drilled its Hickory-1 surface hole at its Phoenix project in Alaska to a depth of 3570 feet.

The company said surface casing had been installed and cemented and the blow-out preventer (BOP) system tested successfully

Drilling is now ready to progress using Nordic Calista’s Rig-2, which aims to intersect three primary SMD targets in the well before proceeding to the secondary SFS and BFF reservoir targets.

88E expects to intersect the primary and secondary targets within the next two weeks before deciding whether to drill to a permitted total depth of 12,500 feet.

The company said it planned to run a wireline logging program through the well to collect extensive data that it would use to optimise a planned Hickory-1 flow test program for the 2023/24 winter season.

88 Energy will provide further updates to shareholders once it has reached its total project depth.

The Phoenix project is estimated to hold up to 647 million barrels (mmbbl) of oil resources.

88E shares closed 9.09 per cent lower at 1.2 cents on Thursday afternoon.