Newfoundland approves development plan for first onshore field

Nov. 15, 2001
Canadian Imperial Venture Corp said the Newfoundland government has approved its development plan for Garden Hill oil field at Port au Port, Newf.

By the OGJ Online Staff

HOUSTON, Nov. 15 -- Canadian Imperial Venture Corp., St. John's, Newf., said Thursday the government of Newfoundland and Labrador has approved its development plan for Garden Hill oil field at Port au Port, Newf.

It will be the first onshore field for Newfoundland. Production rates were not given. The discovery flowed 51°-gravity oil from the Middle Ordovician in 1995.

Canadian Imperial's partners in the venture are Hunt Oil Overseas Operating Co. and PanCanadian Energy Corp., who opened the field but did not develop it.

Canadian Imperial said the 30,000-acre field is in a fault-bounded inversion fairway paralleling the western coast of the Port au Port Peninsula.

The first phase of the development will include drilling and completing the Port au Port No. 1 sidetrack well and transporting oil from it and the discovery well to North Atlantic Refining Co.'s 99,750-b/d Come-by-Chance refinery. Associated gas will be used onsite.

Canadian Imperial is an independent with interests in petroleum exploration and production in Western Newfoundland.