Pantheon Resources, the AIM-quoted oil and gas exploration company with working interests of 89.2% - 100% in certain projects advantageously located adjacent to transportation infrastructure on the Alaskan North Slope has provided the following update:

Resource Upgrade

Pantheon has completed its resource assessment of the Kuparuk formation at its Talitha project. The Talitha project contains three independent target geological horizons, each with different reservoir trap geometries, qualities and risk profiles. All three of these formations were penetrated by the Pipeline State #1 wellbore on the Company's acreage and all were confirmed as oil bearing. The Company has now completed its analysis of the Kuparuk, the deepest of these three horizons, and estimates this horizon (on a 100% basis) to contain 1.4 billion barrels of oil in place (OIP) and a Prospective Resource (Recoverable) of 341 million barrels of oil (MMBO) as a most likely case.   The Company has modelled an illustrative development plan(1) for this zone with 62 producing wells, exploiting 247 MMBO of this resource, and using the WTI current forward price curve, yields a potential NPV10 of over US$1.48 billion, with NPV per barrel of $6.00 and an Internal Rate of Return of 55%.

Subject to the completion of a farmout, Pantheon intends to drill a well at Talitha in early 2021, which will test the Kuparuk as well as two other (shallower) target horizons:

1. The shallower 'Shelf Margin Deltaic' ('SMD') horizon, over which the Company recently received an Independent Expert Report ("IER") certifying a Prospective Resource of 302 MMBO (100% basis). This independent resource estimate covered only the 20,600 acres of the reservoir section which is structurally higher (ie 'updip') from the oil encountered in the Pipeline State #1 discovery well, and did not cover the total resource across the entire structure or project area. The Production Unit at Talitha covers 44,373 acres. The SMD is the primary objective of the Talitha project due to its attractive reservoir qualities. Pantheon is nearing completion of a resource estimate over the entire SMD horizon in the Talitha Production Unit (the previous Company estimate, like the IER, was confined only to the updip area) and will report to shareholders when completed. The Company anticipates a material upgrade.
2. The 'Slope Fan System' lies below the SMD and above the Kuparuk in depth. Oil was encountered throughout this system whilst drilling the original Pipeline State #1 well. The Company is presently working on a Resource Assessment for the Slope Fan System at Talitha and we expect completion before year end.

Bob Rosenthal, Technical Director, commented:
"This is a great result at Kuparuk, substantially increasing our estimates of total Prospective Resources at Talitha. Importantly, Talitha has scope for further resource improvement as we complete our work over the coming weeks and months to include (i) the Slope Fan System, and (ii) the entire structure across the SMD, which will now include the downdip section. The Kuparuk and the Slope Fan Systems are recognised oil producers in the area and hence these productive analogs provide increased confidence about future development. The SMD is the major new geological play type in the region where the recent large discoveries have been made and are now subject to major development programs. We are fortunate to have all these plays tested in one well with a mixture of older proven play types and the new and exciting play type which has yielded the largest onshore discoveries in the world over recent years.The Independent Expert Report on the SMD only considered the structurally higher 'updip' (high graded) location from the Pipeline State #1 discovery well where the reservoir quality is superior and excluded the downdip area entirely. Work on this larger area is presently underway and will be announced when completed."

Jay Cheatham, CEO,commented: 
"If we can complete a farmout in time to drill this winter, Talitha has the potential, if successful, to be the most impactful well of my 50 year career. Having run Arco's international business and also its upstream Gulf of Mexico area business, you dream about these opportunities. It has taken over a decade of work to delineate and advance this opportunity to "drill ready" status. This appraisal well will test three separate and independent targets which collectively offer the potential for greater than a billion- barrels of recoverable oil. Each of these targets compare in size to large deepwater offshore projects around the world.  In our case they are onshore USA. The Talitha location is adjacent to the major highway and Trans Alaska Pipeline network serving the North Slope, positioning us beautifully in the event of success for a development, even in a low oil price world. Despite our obvious excitement about Talitha, an appraisal well updip from discovered oil, nothing is without risk in this business and commercial success is never guaranteed before drilling."

Alaska North Slope

In January 2019 Pantheon acquired the assets of Great Bear Petroleum ("GBP"), a focused Alaskan North Slope (“ANS”) oil and gas company. The ANS hosts the largest conventional oil and gas accumulations in North America. GBP had been operating on the ANS for almost a decade and over US$200m has been invested on the project to date, providing a comprehensive proprietary dataset of understanding. The ANS has experienced an exploration revival and now boasts among the largest recent conventional onshore oil discoveries made anywhere in the world. These discoveries all tested high production rates of good quality light oil from conventional reservoirs. Drilling by GBP and adjoining operators has highlighted the significant prospectivity of Pantheon’s acreage as offering billions of barrels of oil potential in stacked conventional targets across multiple geological plays. In 2019 Pantheon successfully flow tested the Greater Alkaid discovery well, producing light oil.

Pantheon is a large exploration leaseholder where it controls around 180,000 gross acres, most of it contiguous, south of the giant Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk oil fields which are the largest oil fields in North America. This acreage is covered by c.1,000 square miles of proprietary 3D seismic and contains several existing discoveries and a host of world class exploitation prospects. Pantheon’s working interest in Alaska is between 89%-100%.

Apart from being a proven prolific oil province, Pantheon’s acreage position is operationally (and commercially) advantaged by its immediate proximity the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (“TAPS”) and the Dalton Highway which both pass through its leasehold, enhancing near term commercialization opportunities. Such close proximity to infrastructure provides Pantheon with a significant competitive advantage versus other Operators, with lower development and production costs and more rapid commercialization opportunities, yielding higher per barrel NPV’s.

Greater Alkaid project

In March 2019 Pantheon announced its Alkaid well as a discovery in the Brookian formation, following successful flow testing which exceeded expectations. This was an excellent result for Pantheon, with positive implications for Pantheon’s other Brookian prospects. In January 2020, Lee Keeling & Associates provided an independent experts report confirming a Contingent Resource of 76.5 Million Barrels of Recoverable Oil. Highlights of the report included:

• 76.5 Million Barrels of Oil (“MMBO”) Contingent Resource (recoverable)
• $595 million NPV10 based on modelled 44 wells, and c.70 MMBO Phase 1 field development over a 20 year term at an oil price of $55 held flat
• $8.50NPV10 per barrel of oil
• Field peak flow rate 30,000 Barrels of oil per day (“BOPD”)
• Individual well EUR (estimated ultimate recovery) of 2.25 MMBO per well for 24 wells
• The LKA report supports the Company view that Alkaid and Phecda is one continuous accumulation. Now called “Greater Alkaid”
• Located underneath and adjacent to the Dalton Highway & Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS)
• This estimate comprises Contingent Resource only – does not include Prospective Resource

In December 2019 Pantheon announced the successful acquisition of over 27,000 acres in the State of Alaska's North Slope Areawide Lease sale, strategically positioned in two areas contiguous or adjacent to our current acreage on our northern and southwestern boundaries. These acreage additions are covered with proprietary 3D seismic and were selected as a result of detailed technical work completed by Pantheon and its consultants at eSeis. Management believe the new acreage offers significant potential for the Company.

In March 2020 Pantheon announced that it had completed analysis of the shallowest of three independent horizons at its Talitha project, the “Shelf Margin Deltaic” horizon, and estimated that this formation had the potential to contain 1.8 billion barrels of oil in place (OIP) and a (50 Technically Recoverable Resource of 483 million barrels of oil. Estimates for the additional two zones, the “Kuparuk” and the “Slope Fan System” will be provided in due course, once analyses has been completed.

KeyFacts Energy: Pantheon US Alaska profile