(Alliance News) - Pantheon Resources PLC on Monday announced it has penetrated all objective formations at Talitha A on the Alaska North Slope and encountered oil in all of them.
Pantheon shares were up 18% at 43.70 pence each in London on Monday morning.
The oil & gas exploration company focused on Alaska said that four "distinct oil-bearing zones" have been identified.
Chief Executive Jay Cheatham said: "We've often said that any one of the four zones at Talitha could be company makers, and we have three contenders in the Shelf Margin Deltaic, Basin Floor Fan and Kuparuk, all of which show great promise."
Going forward, Pantheon said it plans to test the Shelf Margin Deltaic, Basin Floor Fan, which consists of two separate zones, and the Kuparuk zones.
"Testing all zones is critical to determine ultimate commerciality," the company said.
Techinical Director Bob Rosenthal said: "We are very encouraged with operations to date; it's definitely a case of 'so far, so good'! We have penetrated all our objective formations and encountered oil in each of them - this is a great result so far. Drilling has gone smoothly and we have a borehole in good condition which has allowed us to obtain valuable, high quality data to formulate a testing program in all our zones of interest. As always, we caution that testing is critical to establish the commercial viability of the oil that appears present in the Talitha structure. Preliminary analysis suggests that the well has multiple horizons with potential to be commercial, but is not yet proven and we remain cautiously optimistic."
By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com
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Pantheon Res (PANR)