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  • 88 Energy’s (88E) shares are up this morning after successfully drilling a surface hole at Merlin-1 well in Northern Alaska
  • As planned, the hole was drilled to 1512 feet
  • The company is now planning to commence drilling a production hole
  • Additionally, 88 Energy entered a share subscription agreement with ELKO International, one of the major contractors of the operation
  • Under this ELKO will be issued 360 million shares at 1.8 cents per share
  • On the market this morning, 88 Energy is up 35.3 per cent and is trading at 2.3 cents per share

88 Energy’s (88E) shares are up this morning after successfully drilling a surface hole at Merlin-1 well in Northern Alaska.

As planned, Merlin-1 was successfully drilled to 1512 feet. Surface casing has now been cemented and the blowout preventer system has been tested.

A formation integrity test has also been successfully taken and the rig is now drilling ahead in the production hole, where primary Nanushuk targets are located.

88 Energy says logging while drilling and mudlogging will provide initial indications of prospectivity of the well during this part of the operation, this is expected to take three to five days.

Following this, a wireline logging suite will be run, expected to take around one week. If the results from the wirelogging are encouraging, then the well will be completed with casing and a flow test conducted.

Merlin-1 is located within Project Peregrine on the North Slope of Alaska. Earlier this month, the well was spudded and is targeting 645 million barrels of gross mean prospective resource.

Additionally, 88 Energy entered a share subscription agreement with ELKO International, one of the major contractors of the operation. Under this ELKO will be issued 360 million shares at 1.8 cents per share.

“The endorsement of the project by ELKO as we enter the critical phase of the drilling is encouraging and will serve to fund the company’s share of the
recently announced cost overruns,” Managing Director Dave Wall said.

“We wish all our shareholders good fortune over the coming days,” he added.

On the market this morning, 88 Energy is up 35.3 per cent and is trading at 2.3 cents per share at 10:33 am AEDT.

88E by the numbers
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