Blocks are part of a bigger bid round that closes on 4 November and centres on the province’s promising Orphan basin
More than 11 billion barrels of oil and 24 trillion cubic feet of gas resources may be housed in six blocks in the promising Orphan basin off Newfoundland & Labrador in Canada, that are being offered in a licensing round that closes on 4 November.
According to a resource assessment report published yesterday by the provincial government, in partnership with provincial oil company Nalcor and France’s Beicip-Franlab, six parcels on offer in the deep-water basin have the potential to house 11.1 billion barrels of oil and 24.5 Tcf of gas, with 40 prospects identified.
Commenting on the findings, Andrew Parsons, Minister of Industry, Energy & Technology in the capital St John’s, said: “The magnitude of Newfoundland & Labrador’s resource potential continues to grow exponentially. In just 10% of our offshore we now have a combined resource potential of 63.3 billion barrels of oil and 224.1 Tcf of gas.”
Exploration encouragement
The minister hopes this new data plus recently unveiled exploration incentives will encourage explorers to continue to drill.
Upstream reported last week that Australia’s BHP plans to drill a number wildcats in the Orphan basin in 2022, while China National Offshore Oil Corporation is targeting probes in the Flemish Pass basin next year.
The resource assessment for the Orphan basin is based on freshly acquired 3D seismic augmented by 2D data, all gathered by seismic players PGS and TGS.
Jim Keating, Nalcor’s head of offshore development, said: “The significant amount of data covering the area and the evolution of information gathering has presented greater imaging and a deeper understanding of the resource density, enabling us to identify over 40 prospects in an area.”
Beicip-Franlab’s chief executive Jean Burrus, added: “Preliminary exploration efforts had not identified accumulations, but our new comprehensive analysis of the petroleum system confirms the existence of significant hydrocarbon potential in the area.”
The six blocks covered by the resource assessment lie in the North Orphan basin and are in addition to 11 other blocks offered in the Orphan basin and Flemish Pass basins in the ongoing round.
The Orphan acreage lies in water depths ranging from 270 to 3100 metres.
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Source: Upstream | This text was excerpted from the media outlet cited on September 30, 2020 and is provided to Noia members for information purposes only. Any opinion expressed therein is neither attributable to nor endorsed by Noia.
