The company is chasing a prospective resource of 400 million barrels.
Current managing director, Dave Wall, joined 88 when it was Tangiers Petroleum.
He drafted in with ex-FAR chairman Michael Evans and ex-Cove Energy director Dr Stephen Staley to comprise the company's third board in as many years following the collapse of a proposed merger with Jacka Resources.
Tangiers was just weeks out from spudding its first well in Morocco. When that well was a duster Tangiers became a cashbox company with no projects.
With a six month window imposed on them by the ASX to meet the listing rules, Wall and his compatriots looked at an area they knew well - Africa. But African timeframes weren't going to work well with the ASX listing requirements.
Knowing that the money in the resources cycle tends to be made in the bust phase rather than the boom, they were eager to find a solid project, and it was then that fate lent a hand.
One of Wall's contacts in the US, a lawyer who had done work for Eureka Energy and who had ridden the skyrocket that was Eagle Ford Shale producer Aurora Oil & Gas, introduced him to the former head of Burlington Resources' gas unit, Paul Basinski.
Basinski had developed a theory on exploiting liquids-rich shales he believed could work.
Burlington wasn't a fan of the idea and passed, but it was taken over by ConocoPhillips which felt the promise offered by the Eagle Ford Shale was too good to let go - and the rest is history.
Basinski swiftly became ConocoPhillips' head of unconventional exploration and he scoured the world looking for the best liquids-rich plays. He identified three: the Bazhenov Shale in Russia; the HRZ Shale on Alaska's North Slope; and Poland.
Russia was politically difficult and ConocoPhillips felt it had enough on its plate in Alaska, so it selected Poland.
Poland was a disaster because of the lack of seal around the shale zone. Polish shales are plastic and difficult to fracture and, in some cases, have clays that swells upon encountering water, impeding flows.
When Basinski parted ways with the company he kept the fire burning on the Alaskan project and secured the first 10,000 acres.
When private equity funding fell through because of the oil price collapse, 88 stepped in.
"He's a technical guy. He's spent four years working on this thing, ‘trying to kill it' in his words, and sometimes people like that don't worry about the commercial side as much," Wall told Energy News.
"He's spent 6-7 years using the same techniques used to identify the Eagle Ford, and at the equivalent stage of the Eagle Ford this looks better," Wall said.
"We've had independent experts look at it, and they can't poke any holes in it, which is very important to us."
Wall said Project Icewine enjoys the convergence of several unique factors that make the story very compelling.
"In the Lower 48 states a small company can't have 100,000 acres, because you have to drill a well at least every 640 acres … and usually within a 3-5 year timeframe. In Alaska, because all the minerals are owned by the state there is less pressure on timing."
88 and Basinski's Burgundy Xploration managed to increase the holdings in the Icewine project to almost 100,000 acres, by bidding just over the minimum amount of $US25 per acre.
That gives the JV at least 10 years to work on the project.
Further, unlike the southern states, the royalty rate in Alaska is 12.5%, plus Burgundy's royalty of 4%, which is still lower than the 20%-plus rates seen in the US.
Also, oil can be exported Alaska - something that is almost impossible in the main US states.
It has only been in the past few years that 3D seismic has enabled explorers to see through the noisy permafrost and gas hydrates and image structures.
A private concern, Great Bear Exploration, has made a number of 50MMbbl plus conventional discoveries north of Icewine, and is drilling the Talitha-2 well just a few kilometres north of Icewine's boundary.
It could de-risk conventional structures in the area, and is basically a free look for 88 which is placing its focus on the shale zones.
Given that the US Geological Survey ranks the North Slope as the third best location to find oil in the world, with 4Bbbl left to find on the slope, and the 85 cent in the dollar rebate, it is little wonder Wall is so bullish.
"The road is key," Wall told Energy News.
Drilling is typically restricted to between January and May, because that is when the permafrost hardens enough to allow for ice road construction. That issue faces Great Bear and Rampart, but not 88 initially given the highway and the existing gravel pad the company intends to drill from.
That means it can take advantage of stacked rigs, and lower drilling prices, as Alaska is more expensive compared to the Lower 48.
"We are 35 miles [56 kilometres] south of Pump Station One for Prudhoe Bay, which feels into TAPS [the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System]," Wall said.
Prudhoe Bay, North America's largest field with 17 billion barrels, was discovered in the 1950s and produced over 15Bbbl. However, with it now in decline is 1.5MMbopd of spare capacity in the 2MMbopd pipeline.
"That's something we would like to help fix, because if production gets below 300,000bopd you start to get issues with the pipeline and they have to shut it in, and it is 95% of the organic GDP of Alaska," Wall said.
That's why Alaska has an 85% exploration rebate. It is like inviting a joint venture partner in for a carry and giving them nothing in return.
It makes Alaska the best place on earth to explore, Wall says, especially given it is one of the few places in the US where you can export oil and command a $US10 per barrel premium to Brent.
88 is working towards drilling its first well, Icewine-1, to take a look at its formations, but it is seeking a funding partner.
"We have enough money to finalise the acquisition, permit and plan the well, and get it to the point where we can spud the well, but we can't actually spud it," Wall said.
"Because we have got all these other things going for us we should be able to get a farm-in partner, or we can borrow against that 85% rebate … and we could go it alone."
Wall says for a $20 million well 88 may only need $5 million. Considering the company just raised $7 million it is possible, but not the preferred pathway.
He is confident the company will find oil in the source rock.
"We know we are going to find something. The geological risk with a shale play like this is zero. The shale is there, there will be oil in it, and then it is really engineering risk," Wall said.
Icewine-1 will be followed by 3D seismic, which should define the conventional targets and hopefully a location for Icewine-2, planned for 2016.
Icewine-2 will be engineered for a flow test and will either kill the play or crack it open.
The HRZ shale has 14% porosity, which is almost unheard of in shale plays. The best US producer, the EFS, has 10%.
Based on the log data the HRZ should have primary and secondary porosity, high TOCs and effective seals.
All the technical work to date has been unable to kill the play, Wall says, so all that's left to do is drill it.
