Appraisal drilling on the Scotian shelf off eastern Canada has confirmed what PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. is calling "the most significant discovery in Atlantic Canada in more than a decade."
After drilling and testing the next appraisal well, PanCanadian will evaluate reserve size, commercial potential, and development options. It said the field could go on line by late 2003.
The company said its second appraisal well in Deep Panuke gas field in the Atlantic Ocean about 155 miles east-southeast of Halifax averaged more than 50 MMcfd of gas, the maximum capacity of test equipment, on a 3-day test.
PanCanadian, which holds 100% working interest in Deep Panuke, is drilling a third appraisal well, M-79, and should have results in September.
Based on results of the discovery well and first two appraisal wells, the reservoir is estimated to be 6 to 8 km long, the company said. The second appraisal well, H-08, is about 2 km southwest of the discovery well, P-3C (see maps, OGJ, Mar. 20, 2000, p. 79).
H-08 cut 325 ft of net pay. Drilling so far has proven a gas column of at least 450 ft. The reservoir is a Jurassic Abenaki limestone reef. Well TDs are at about 4,000-4,200 m.
Deep Panuke lies closer than 25 miles to the producing platform at Thebaud gas field, part of the Sable Offshore Energy Project that includes a pipeline to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the northeastern US. However, upon announcing the results of the first two wells in February 2000, PanCanadian said the gas tests at Panuke "signal the potential emergence of another East Coast natural gas project."
