The Honourable Kathy Dunderdale, Minister of Natural
Resources, today provided an update of activity this
year in the petroleum industry that demonstrates rising
industry interest and continued sustained exploration
activity in Newfoundland and Labrador�s
highly-prospective offshore and onshore regions.
"Our industry partners continue to demonstrate their
confidence in our basins and petroleum prospects," said
Minister Dunderdale. "Our basins hold tremendous
resource potential and the interest being shown in these
areas bodes well for exciting new future discoveries,
upon which our industry will continue to grow. We
continue to promote our onshore and offshore
opportunities through our investment attraction efforts
and our commitment to improving the geoscientific
information available to the industry."
A rig-sharing agreement among operators for use of
the semi-submersible rig, the Henry Goodrich, resulted
in the drilling of the Mizzen O-16 discovery well in the
Flemish Pass Basin earlier this year, and the subsequent
filing of a Declaration of Significant Discovery by its
operator, Statoil. Suncor subsequently took over as
operator of the Henry Goodrich and this fall drilled the
Ballicatters well, an exploration well designed to test
two separate prospects on adjacent exploration licenses.
In the case of one of these prospects, the well was spud
(the initial drilling for an oil well) the same year the
licence was issued, which represents decisive action by
the operator on its licence.
In the Laurentian Basin, ConocoPhillips spudded a
deepwater well, East Wolverine G-37, using the modern
drillship Stena Carron. In the Orphan Basin, ExxonMobil
and co-venturers completed additional geoscience to add
to their understanding of the hydrocarbon potential of
several sizeable prospects located in deepwater. Pending
partner and regulatory approvals, a second well could be
spud in the basin in 2010.
The most recent Calls for Bids for exploration rights
for specific parcels of land attracted interest in the
already successfully-producing Jeanne D'Arc and
Laurentian basins, as well as the Anticosti Basin in the
western region of the province. This was on the heels of
land sales in the Central Ridge-Flemish Pass Basin,
Sydney Basin and the Hopedale Basin in offshore
Labrador. The bidders have swiftly acted on their
newly-acquired Exploration Licences and environmental
assessments have been filed with the Canada-Newfoundland
and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) for
seismic acquisition programs on the Labrador Shelf, the
Sydney, Laurentian and Jeanne D'Arc basins, and the
western offshore area.
Last month, Husky Energy announced its discovery of
60 million more barrels of oil in the North Amethyst
field, the first White Rose expansion. The province has
a five per cent equity interest in White Rose expansion
project through Nalcor Energy. The discovery provides
benefits to the province comparable to the purchase
price for equity in this project, as well as the
Hibernia Southern Extension and possibly Hebron.
Discussions are continuing on the development of the
Hibernia Southern Extension and drilling has started on
the AA blocks, which will be developed directly from the
Hibernia platform. The Hibernia Southern Extension will
bring the total recoverable reserves from Hibernia to
over 1.2 billion barrels.
"Despite the challenges in the global economy and
industry this past year, our industry has maintained its
level of activity, work commitments and interest," said
Minister Dunderdale. "Our government also continues to
support exploration activities in western Newfoundland
in an effort to unlock the undiscovered potential that
exists in the region. A government-funded initiative
recently saw the release of a series of high-resolution
aeromagnetic maps of the region�s onshore area. This
data acquisition improves our knowledge of these basins
and when incorporated with other geoscientific datasets,
increases the changes of discoveries through targeted
drilling."
The aeromagnetic maps are part of the province�s
$5-million Petroleum Exploration Enhancement Program
(PEEP) designed to increase geoscientific knowledge of
the western region. Other promising developments in this
region include Vulcan Minerals and Investcan�s gas
discovery in its exploration well RedBrook #2 in the Bay
St. George Subbasin. Nalcor Energy is also operator of a
three-well exploration program in the Parsons Pond area
that will contribute to the knowledge base and potential
strategic development of the resources in this frontier
region.
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