GREENLAND OPENS MORE OFFSHORE, LAND ACREAGE TO EXPLORATION

Greenland's Mineral Resources Administration (MRA) plans a series of licensing rounds off western Greenland.

Meanwhile, the MRA has declared the Jameson Land basin of east central Greenland as open acreage.

Greenland Geological Survey (GGU), Copenhagen, has prepared a report on the geographical conditions, logistics, exploration history, and geological development of Jameson Land.

The report emphasizes source and reservoir rocks, conceptual play types with six seismic examples, and thermal history with basin modeling. It also includes two interpreted regional seismic lines, a geological and an aeromagnetic map, depth structure and isopach maps of selected formations, and a bibliography.

Separately, GGU has launched the retrofitted high ice class vessel Thetis, a modified Danish navy inspection vessel, in mid-1991 to begin acquiring seismic data in the industry supported Kanumas project.

The vessel acquired 3,224 line km of data off Northeast Greenland between 72 and 79 30' N. Lat. by Sept. 30. The shelf areas are notorious for moving pack ice off Northeast Greenland and numerous icebergs in Melville Bay.

WESTERN ACREAGE

The first licensing round, covering areas south of 66 N. Lat., will take place in early 1993 (see map). MRA will list conditions and economic terms in March or April 1992.

Offers will be due by Jan. 1, 1993, and tracts will be awarded in May-June 1993.

Applicants can be awarded one or more tracts consisting of as many as six contiguous blocks. Each block covers about 400 sq km.

A seismic acquisition program will be the minimum work obligation for the first license period, after which a drill or drop clause takes effect.

Drilling obligations in the second license period will vary according to the size of the area retained. Economic terms will be fully competitive with terms offered in similar areas in other parts of the world, MRA said.

OFFSHORE FEATURES

Reprocessed regional reflection seismic and modeling of magnetic data indicate that block-faulted continental crust overlain by syn- and post-rift sediments extends at least 130 km from the foot of the Greenland continental slope.

The data also indicate that the oldest magnetochron in the Labrador Sea north of the Julianehab fracture zone around 58 N. Lat. is early Paleocene.

These reinterpretations were presented to the Geological Society of London in October 1991 based on seismic data that were acquired in 1977 by Bundesanstalt fur Geowissenschaften and Rohstoffe.

The reinterpretations require the history of the opening of the Labrador Sea to be revised.

They also extend the prospective area off Greenland far into deep water, where production can be expected to become feasible as technology develops in the future, GGU said.

GGU also plans to publish in January 1992 a bulletin on the results of reinterpretations all industry seismic data of usable quality between 64 20' and 66 N. Lat.

Two rifting episodes have been identified, one in early Tertiary and another of unknown older age. Seismic stratigraphic framework of the entire Tertiary has been defined.