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West Newfoundland onshore light oil deposit cored
Vulcan Minerals Inc., St. John's, Newf., said a core hole program has indicated that the Flat Bay shallow light oil deposit underlies an estimated 8-10 sq km in southwestern Newfoundland.
The dark brown, 34-36° gravity oil with less than 1% sulfur is primarily in low-permeability conglomerates and sandstones in the Ship Cove and Fischell's Brook formations. The oil has a pour point of 9°, which exceeds the reservoir temperature at the shallow depths currently intersected, so the oil does not flow.
A qualified reservoir engineering group will review results from the core drilling program in order to formulate a pilot project to extract the oil. A total of 14 core holes have been drilled in the general area south of the Port au Port peninsula.
An input of energy will be required to stimulate flow, said Vulcan, which shares interests in the project 50-50 with Investcan Energy Corp.
The most recent core drilling involved six holes with a combined 1,673 m, and the target reservoirs were oil bearing in three of the six. Rig capacity limited hole depth, and as a result it was not possible to penetrate the reservoirs completely.
The gross thickness of the oil-bearing Fischell's Brook formation in the Flat Bay-1 discovery well was 100 m.
The formations were deeper than expected and beyond the rig's depth capacity at core hole 5, but minor live oil shows were encountered in a sandy lense in an anhydrite that overlies the unpenetrated target formations.
Holes 4 and 9 were drilled updip of the find and encountered shallow basement without any oil-bearing target intervals, though both found live oil shows in basement fractures.
Cris-R hydrocarbons logged at ultradeep shelf well
McMoRan Exploration Co. will apply to deepen its Lafitte ultradeep prospect well on the Gulf of Mexico shelf to 32,000 ft to evaluate deeper Miocene and Oligocene objectives after wireline logs indicated 56 net ft of hydrocarbon-bearing sand with good porosity in a 58-ft gross Lower Miocene Cris-R section.
McMoRan has drilled the Lafitte well, in 140 ft of water on Eugene Island Block 223, to 29,756 ft and run wireline logs to 29,740 ft. Flow testing will be needed to confirm the flow capacity of the Cris-R section, which is full to base.
The Cris-R interval brings the well's total possible productive net sands to 171 ft when combined with the 115 ft of potential net pay encountered previously. New Orleans-based McMoRan controls 15,000 gross acres in the immediate area.
McMoRan said the Lafitte results enhance the potential of its other acreage in the area, including its Barataria and Captain Blood ultradeep prospects. Barataria covers 10,000 gross acres west-southwest of Lafitte, and Captain Blood takes in 10,000 gross acres just south of Lafitte.
McMoRan has a 72% working interest and a 58.3% net revenue interest in Lafitte. Other owners include Energy XXI (Bermuda) Ltd. 18% and Moncrief Offshore LLC 10%.
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