Canadian Superior, El Paso to probe Nova Scotia waters

Canadian Superior Energy Inc., Calgary, has entered into a joint venture with El Paso Oil & Gas Canada Inc., a unit of Houston-based El Paso Corp., to explore Canadian Superior's 100%-owned land holdings in the shallow waters of the Scotian shelf off Nova Scotia. Terms of the joint venture were not disclosed.

May 1, 2002

2 min read

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, May 1 -- Canadian Superior Energy Inc., Calgary, has entered into a joint venture with El Paso Oil & Gas Canada Inc., a unit of Houston-based El Paso Corp., to explore Canadian Superior's 100%-owned land holdings in the shallow waters of the Scotian shelf off Nova Scotia. Terms of the joint venture were not disclosed.

The companies intend to commence exploratory drilling on Canadian Superior's Marquis prospect by June 30.

Canadian Superior acquired its Marquis exploration licenses in October 2000 for work expenditure bids of $27.7 million (Can.). The prospect consists of two exploration licenses covering about 110,000 acres 160 km off Nova Scotia.

In addition to partnering with Canadian Superior in drilling and testing the initial Marquis exploration well, El Paso will participate in the acquisition of a 3D seismic data set covering Canadian Superior's Mariner block.

The Marquis prospect is located 20 km northwest of Sable Island and is directly on trend with and analogous to the recent Deep Panuke Abenaki reef natural gas discovery.

Deep Panuke is about 25 km southwest of the Marquis prospectand is expected to produce more than 400 MMcfd when it comes on line in 2005 (OGJ, Mar. 25, 2002, p. 9).

The Marquis well will be drilled to a minimum depth of 4,300 m TVD or enough to test the deep Abenaki reef section.

"It has been our goal to drill the Marquis well during the second quarter of this year, and we are on schedule to do so," said Greg Noval, president of Canadian Superior, during a presentation at the Independent Petroleum Association of America investment symposium in New York last week.

Meanwhile, Canadian Superior's 100% owned Mariner block is directly adjacent Sable Island Offshore Production's (SOEP) Venture field, the largest SOEP field, with 1.6 tcf of proven reserves. The SOEP group currently produces 550 MMcfd from three fields surrounding the Mariner block. The 101,800-acre block is in about 60 m of water and is adjacent existing pipeline infrastructure.