Assessment Reveals Significant Oil and Gas Potential Offshore Newfoundland
Nalcor
Energy-Oil and Gas and Beicip-Franlab, in partnership with the Government of
Newfoundland and Labrador, today released the 2019 Oil and Gas Resource
Assessment results which identify an additional 3 Bbbl oil and 5.8 Tcf gas
potential offshore Newfoundland.
“The
purpose of embarking on this annual independent resource assessment is to
broaden our understanding of the underexplored frontier basins and add to our
geotechnical knowledge of the area” said the Honorable Siobhan Coady, Minister
of Natural Resources. “The resource potential in our offshore is incredible. In
just 9% of our offshore, we have a combined resource potential of 52.2 Bbbl oil
and 199.6 Tcf gas. We have over 650 leads and prospects identified to date,
eight new entrants in the past three years, and $4 billion in recent
exploration work commitments. We will continue to position our province as an
internationally preferred location for oil and gas exploration and
development.”
This
year’s independent resource assessment is based on new data covering nine
parcels on offer in the Carson-Bonnition and Salar Basins (NL19-CFB01). This
area is within the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board
(C-NLOPB) 2019 South Eastern Newfoundland Call for Bids which is scheduled to
close November 6, 2019.
“We
are applying rigorous exploration best practices and technical innovation to
ensure we ultimately evaluate every area of our offshore for oil and gas
resource potential,” said Jim Keating, executive vice president, offshore
development, Nalcor Energy-Oil and Gas. “In addition to the 2D multi-client
seismic we collected with TGS and PGS over the area, we partnered with Fugro in
acquiring a high resolution multibeam survey which identified a number of
seep-like features coming from the ocean floor. Subsequent coring of these
anomalies confirmed hydrocarbon presence which is an important insight in this
frontier basin due to the limited number of wells and no discoveries to date in
the area.”
The
resource assessment is based on multiple scenarios of geological models. All scenarios were calibrated to well and
seismic data which provided a robust range of outcomes. Detailed technical work
defined the nature and extent of the findings and further details are contained
in the assessment report.
“Beicip-Franlab
has carried out detailed interpretations of past and new data, well and
seismic, in the Carson-Bonnition-Salar basins. The data integration approach
applied was designed to rigorously asses uncertainty and risk, which allowed
the generation of various probable alternative resource evaluation scenarios,
confirming significant hydrocarbon potential in the area,” Jean Burrus, CEO,
Beicip-Franlab.
The
area is located 400 kilometers east-southeast of St. John’s and covers
approximately 21,600 square kilometers. Water depths range from 100 meters on
the shelf to 3,500 meters in the southeastern deepwater region of the sector.
This is the province’s fourth scheduled license round. Future license rounds scheduled through 2024 will follow the same process with detailed resource assessments being conducted and released prior to bid closing.