By Alan Petzet
Chief Editor-Exploration and Economics
HOUSTON, Mar. 25 -- Nonexclusive seismic surveys are planned this summer in the Atlantic off Labrador and Newfoundland in search of oil.
Geophysical Service Inc., Calgary, will acquire 4,000 line km of 2D data off Labrador and a similar amount to the southeast in the Orphan basin east of Newfoundland. The 89-m, ice-strengthened GSI Admiral, capable of towing as many as four streamers 6 km in length, will handle acquisition in July and August, said Davey Einarsson, GSI president, Houston.
GSI has reprocessed about 20,000 line km of data the company acquired in the Labrador Sea starting in 1971 for a major oil company it declined to identify.
The new survey will tie to existing seismic data and to the several wet gas discoveries made on the Labrador shelf in the 1970s-80s (OGJ, July 12, 1982, p. 145). It will extend as far as 100 km off the shelf edge into as much as 3,000 m of water, which may be prospective for oil, said Einarsson.
The Orphan basin lay in ancient times between two basins that are demonstrably oil prone: the Jeanne d'Arc basin off Newfoundland and the Porcupine basin off Ireland, he said. The Orphan basin data will be collected in 1,000-3,000 m of water.
Some expect acreage postings in the Orphan basin soon, which points toward licensing as early as December 2003, Einarsson said.
The Orphan basin is northwest of the Flemish Pass basin, where Petro-Canada, Norsk Hydro Americas Inc., and EnCana Corp. are on an exploratory program that consists of two wells in about 1,000 m of water.
Contact Alan Petzet at [email protected]
