OIL DISCOVERY OPPORTUNITY IS SPECTACULAR: Carson-Bonnition and Salar basins.

The Honourable Siobhan Coady, Minister of Natural Resources, released the 2019 oil and gas resource assessment results which identify an additional 3 billion barrels of oil and 5.8 trillion cubic feet of gas potential offshore Newfoundland.

In total, there is a combined resource potential of 52.2 billion barrels of oil and 199.6 trillion cubic feet of gas in just nine per cent of the province’s offshore. The assessment was conducted by Beicip-Franlab, a leading independent company in doing resource assessments globally. This puts Newfoundland offshore oil and gas potential on par with areas like the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the Middle East, however, exploration and discoveries must take place for those resources to materialize.

“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 assess uncertainty and risk, which allowed the generation of various probable alternative resource evaluation scenarios, confirming significant hydrocarbon potential in the area,” said Jean Burrus, CEO, Beicip-Franlab.

Jim Keating, Executive Vice President, Offshore Development, Nalcor Energy-Oil and Gas says, “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. In addition to the 2D seismic collected over the area, we invested with Fugro in acquiring a high-resolution multibeam survey that 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 government is taking a systematic, scientific approach to understand the province’s oil and gas resource potential. By leading the collection of new data in the early stages of the exploration cycle and providing extensive information about the offshore oil and gas resource potential, new areas for industry exploration and future resource development opportunities are being opened offshore.

The oil and gas industry plays an important role in the growth and development of Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy. Since 1997, the oil and gas industry has accounted for approximately 25 per cent of cumulative provincial GDP and as of June 2019 over 8,900 people were directly employed in construction and operations.

2019 South Eastern Newfoundland Region NL19-CFB01

Located 400 kilometres east-southeast of St. John’s, the 2019 license round will occur over the NL19-CFB01 sector. The sector lies in the central northern portion of the southeastern Newfoundland jurisdiction and includes the Carson-Bonnition and Salar basins.

On April 3, 2019, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) announced the Call for Bids NL19-CFB01. The block definition includes nine parcels of land and a total of 2,270,472 hectares. These nine parcels are the focus of the 2019 Independent Resource Assessment.

Water depths range from 100 metres on the shelf to 3,500 metres in the southeastern deepwater region of the sector.

Interested parties have until 12:00 p.m. NST on November 6th, 2019 to submit bids for the parcels offered in Call for Bids NL19-CFB01. Further detailed information pertaining to this Call for Bids can be found at www.cnlopb.ca/exploration/issuance/#bids-active.

Siobhan Coady, Minister of Natural Resources for Newfoundland and Labrador says, “The purpose of embarking on this annual independent resource assessment is to broaden our understanding of the under-explored frontier basins and add to our geotechnical knowledge of the area. The resource potential in our offshore is incredible. 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 the province as an internationally preferred location for oil and gas exploration and development – one that values safety and environmental responsibility and maximizes benefits to the people of the province.”

SOURCE: Nalcor, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, CNLOPB