Alphonsus J. Fagan
Newfoundland Department of Mines and Energy
St. John's
Hunt Oil Co., Dallas, with its 50% partner, PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, has received government approval and is spudding this month a 4,600 m well on the Port au Port peninsula in western Newfoundland, Canada.
Hunt acquired two offshore parcels, 109 and 1010, in 1991 and during the following 2 years evaluated the area with seismic and aero-magnetic data. Hunt in July 1993 acquired the 35,000 hectare onshore permit 93-102 and followed with an 87 km land seismic program last winter.
The result is that Hunt has "defined a structural closure that is large enough to contain commercial hydrocarbons," Max Perkins, Hunt vice president, told the Newfoundland Offshore Industries Association conference in June 1994.
Perkins said Hunt defined "two structures in the area of interest. One is offshore and another, smaller structure is onshore." It is the smaller onshore structure that will be tested by this well.
ANCIENT CONTINENTAL SHELF
Western Newfoundland contains prospective rocks of Carboniferous and Cambro-Ordovician age. The Hunt well will test Cambro Ordovician rocks on the eastern edge of the Anticosti basin. These rocks are the same age and have a similar geologic history to sediments containing major reserves in Texas and Oklahoma.
Fig. 1 shows the geographical and structural relationship of western Newfoundland and the Anticosti basin to the equivalent age basins along the Appalachian front. The Cambro Ordovician carbonates along this trend once formed the continental shelf of eastern North America and were folded by continental collision at the closing of the Iapetus Ocean.
The Hunt PanCanadian well will test several potential reservoirs, including the St. George group, which is the time equivalent of and was deposited along the same broad carbonate platform as the Ellenburger and Arbuckle dolomites. These reservoirs are home to some of the largest producing fields in the U.S.
NEWFOUNDLAND DRILLING
This is not the first well to be drilled in the Port au Port area or in western Newfoundland.
In the late 1800s and over the years about 60 wells have been drilled throughout western Newfoundland. Most of these were very shallow, averaging 300 500 m, and drilled near oil seeps with limited geological analysis and no seismic data.
Nevertheless, more than half these wells and many water wells have had hydrocarbon shows. Several wells were briefly brought on production around the turn of the century with flow rates of 2 10 b/d.
The last well drilled on the Port au Port peninsula was drilled by Brinex and Golden Eagle in 1965. It reached a depth of 712 m and encountered oil staining at numerous depths.
The last well drilled in western Newfoundland was the Union Brinex Anguille H 98 wells in 1973. This well, which was drilled to a depth of 2,311 m in steeply dipping Carboniferous beds about 60 km south of the Hunt PanCanadian well, did not encounter hydrocarbons.
What is different about this new well is that Hunt, in addition to identifying potential source and reservoir rocks in outcrop, has utilized seismic and aeromag data to identify a drillable subsurface feature. No previous well has had the benefit of subsurface mapping.
If this well is successful in finding commercial hydrocarbons, Hunt's next move will be to drill the larger structure underlying its offshore acreage. None of the offshore licenses in the area has yet been drilled, and all but EL 1019 require the spudding of a well by Jan. 15, 1996, or face reversion to the Crown.
The offshore licenses can be extended 4 years by drilling a well during the primary (5 year) term. The onshore permits, issued in 1992 and 1993, also have a 5 year primary term that can be extended 2 years by drilling a well.
Copyright 1994 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
