Newfoundland: Flat Bay high-pour oil coring starts
Sept. 27, 2011
Vulcan Minerals Inc., St. John’s, and Investcan Energy Corp. began a 4-week program to drill five core holes near the Flat Bay-1 light oil discovery well in the Bay St. George basin in western Newfoundland.
The Flat Bay oil deposit consists of light, 34° gravity oil as shallow as 100 m in low-permeability conglomerates and sandstones (OGJ Online, Nov. 4, 2010). Pour point is 9° C., which exceeds reservoir temperature at the depths intersected.
The five holes will be drilled in an area 4 km from north to south to obtain reservoir information to help design an oil recovery method that will involve injection of energy to stimulate flow.
Alan Petzet is Chief Editor-Exploration of Oil & Gas Journal in Houston. He is editor of the Weekly E&D Newsletter, emailed to OGJ subscribers, and a regular contributor to the OGJ Online subscriber website.
Petzet joined OGJ in 1981 after 13 years in the Tulsa World business-oil department. He was named OGJ Exploration Editor in 1990. A native of Tulsa, he has a BA in journalism from the University of Tulsa.