Australian E&P 88 Energy Ltd. said March 31 preliminary results from wireline logging operations at the Merlin-1 well on Alaska’s North Slope are expected over the weekend.

Earlier this week, the company reported interpretation of LWD indicated multiple potential hydrocarbon-bearing zones were encountered in the Nanushuk Formation while drilling the well. However, “until the wireline has been completed and interpreted, it will not be possible to define whether a discovery has been made,” the company said March 29.

The company also said on March 31 it has completed the final condition related to the acquisition of the Umiat Oil Field on the Alaska North Slope.

Cement work associated with plugging and abandoning of two historical wells at the field was finished along with remedial site work expected to be completed in the near term, the company said in a March 31 news release.

The company announced in January that its wholly owned subsidiary Emerald House LLC entered an agreement with Malamute Energy Inc. and Renaissance Umiat LLC to purchase the oil field. Covered by two leases comprising 17,633 acres, the field was discovered in the 1940s and is adjacent to southern boundary of Project Peregrine.

“The acquisition of the proven oil field at Umiat is a significant milestone for the company and its shareholders, particularly in the context of any discovery made at Project Peregrine, where wireline logging is currently underway,” 88 Energy Managing Director Dave Wall said in the March 31 release.

88 Energy operates 195,000 net acres at Project Peregrine in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

Onshore