Statoil has made the company’s second discovery of light, high-quality oil in the Flemish Pass basin offshore Newfoundland but said it cannot yet judge the find’s resource potential.
The company encountered oil while drilling its Harpoon prospect in 1,100 m of water on EL 1112 about 500 km northeast of St. John’s, Newf., and 10 km southeast of the 2012 Mizzen oil discovery that Statoil estimated to hold 100-200 million bbl of oil (OGJ Online, June 21, 2012).
Erik Finnstrom, Statoil senior vice-president for exploration North America, said, “We anticipate there will be further appraisal drilling to mature this discovery in the future. We will continue to build this area as a core exploration region for Statoil.”
As part of its 2013 three-well exploratory program off Newfoundland, Statoil is currently drilling its Federation prospect in the Jeanne d’Arc basin. The company will then return to the Flemish Pass basin to drill the Bay du Nord prospect southwest of the Harpoon and Mizzen discoveries (see map, OGJ Feb. 14, 2005, p. 34).
Statoil is operator of Harpoon with a 65% interest, and Husky Energy has 35%.
