There could be 25.5 billion bbl in place and 20.6 Tcf of gas in the West Orphan Basin, in the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) 2016 Eastern Newfoundland Call for Bids, according to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nalcor Energy and Beicip-Franlab.
The independent assessment is based on new data covering the nine parcels on offer in the West Orphan Basin, an area 300km from the northeast coast of Newfoundland. The assessment covers approximately 2% (20,000sq km) of Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore area.
Nalcor, with its partners TGS and PGS, have been acquiring extensive 2D seismic data (110,000 line km to date) in the underexplored slope and deep water areas. To further delineate the West Orphan Basin, a 3D seismic survey was acquired over a portion of the area in summer 2015.
Jim Keating, EVP, Corporate Services and Offshore Development, Nalcor Energy, said: “The 3D seismic survey added an additional layer of insight which has played an essential role in helping us risk reduce key prospects from a 1 in 20 to a globally competitive 1 in 6 chance of success.”
Through the integration of satellite slick data, 2D long offset seismic, 3D long offset seismic and seabed coring a new Lower Tertiary play trend has been identified in the West Orphan Basin. The discovery of this play trend is fully described in a recent Nalcor conference paper accepted for presentation at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists(SEG) International Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas this fall.
It is this newly identified prospectivity that resulted in Beicip Franlab’s resource assessment identifying the in place resource potential of 25.5 billion bbl oil and 20.6 Tcf of gas in the area.
“The 2016 independent oil and gas resource assessment adds to our growing knowledge about our offshore oil and gas potential - leading to more exploration work by global companies and giving us assurance that we will have a thriving oil and gas industry in Newfoundland and Labrador for many years to come,” said The Honourable Dwight Ball, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. “We do recognize that exploration is down globally due to current challenges in the oil and gas industry. Still, we are cautiously optimistic about positive results of the licensing round in November 2016. We are fully expecting more exploration work by the leading oil and gas companies in the world.”
The 2016 round is the province’s second scheduled license round. Future license rounds scheduled through 2020 will follow the same process with detailed resource assessments being conducted and released prior to bid closing.