By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 2 -- The Greenland and Danish governments plan to open a licensing round in the Davis Strait off West Greenland with meetings in Copenhagen Apr. 1 and Houston Apr. 6.
Deadline for licensing applications is Oct. 1.
The governments agreed on a new licensing policy in June 2003. Four areas to be offered lie from just south of 63° N. Lat. to just north of 68° N. Lat.
License terms will be announced this year and will be based on the existing model license and a standard joint operating agreement. Terms include 30% corporate tax, a favorable surplus royalty regime, and 12.5% carry of the national oil company in the exploration phase.
Two seismic vessels gathered a total of nearly 9,000 km of seismic data off western and southern Greenland in 2003, bringing the total acquired since mid-2001 to 11,000 km. Acquisition extended through the end of November 2003.
The 2003 long-offset data "confirm a much more widespread distribution of connected deep basins recognized only locally on earlier surveys in the region," the governments said.
EnCana Corp., Calgary, holds the only active license in the area. The 3,985 sq km tract, awarded in October 2002, is 200 km west of Nuuk in 200-1,000 m of water. Greenland's state Nunaoil has a carried interest during the exploration phase.
Most of the license is in the southern Nuuk basin, but the eastern edge is in part of the Atammik structural complex.
