Independent Resource Assessment Identifies Significant Potential in the West Orphan Basin Offshore Newfoundland and Labrador
Friday 26 August 2016
Study shows the in place oil and gas resource potential is 25.5 billion barrels of oil and 20.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.
August 24, 2016, St. John’s, NL - The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nalcor Energy and Beicip-Franlab announced today that the in place oil and gas resource potential is 25.5 billion barrels of oil and 20.6 trillion cubic feet of gas in the West Orphan Basin located within the area of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) 2016 Eastern Newfoundland Call for Bids.
“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.”
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 of the province’s offshore. To further delineate the West Orphan Basin, a 3D seismic survey was acquired over a portion of the area in the summer of 2015 and the data from the new 3D images has provided further insight into the area’s resource potential. This is the first time a 3D survey has been conducted offshore Newfoundland and Labrador in advance of a scheduled license round.