Proactive Investors - Pantheon Resources PLC (LON:PANR) has expanded its footprint on Alaska’s North Slope, adding some 39,540 acres through a state lease sale.
“Pantheon will soon have c. 193,000 acres under lease with a material resource base in the billions of barrels,” said chief executive Jay Cheatham.
The company, in a statement, noted that it had formally accepted and paid for the licence award by the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources though it remains subject to the formal granting of the leases (anticipated in the near term upon completion of standard formalities).
Some 25,460 of the new acres are in the northern end of Pantheon’s lease holding, in an area described as being the "updip portion of our Theta West Basin Floor Fan", whilst the other 14,080 acres are said to be "fill in" around the Alkaid and Talitha discoveries.
Pantheon told investors it expects to book additional oil resources for the new acreage in due course, though the acreage presently remains under evaluation – the resource base was earlier this year estimated at up to 10.9bn barrels, covering the Basin Floor Fan complex.
Located updip of Theta West, the company believes the new northern leases can see an improvement in reservoir properties, increased recovery and better reservoir productivity.
It intends to test this theory with the next Theta West appraisal well.
Cheatham, meanwhile, added: “Having now secured the desired acreage, Pantheon now intends to increase the profile of its project geology without fear of competition and to assist in attracting potential farm-in partners.
“This process commenced last week where AHS/Baker Hughes presented a case study using the Theta West volatiles analysis to the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Western Regional Meeting in Anchorage.
“We will also begin participating in other relevant industry meetings to raise the profile of the assets."