contents The Economy 2001
Oil and Gas (continued)
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Onshore Development
Work continues on the Garden Hill oil and gas development on the Port au Port Peninsula. Canadian Imperial Venture Corporation’s development budget for 2001 is between $5 and $10 million. The Company estimates that the Southern portion of Garden Hill may contain between 70 and 130 million barrels of oil equivalent. This project’s Development Application is presently under provincial review. Pending government approval, the Company has targetted first oil for July 2001. 

Resource Potential
Current oil developments and significant discoveries represent only a fraction of the resource potential that exists in the offshore. To date, 2.1 billion barrels of oil and 5.1 trillion cubic feet of gas have been discovered on the Grand Banks, all in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin. The Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board estimates that this basin together with the adjoining Ridge Complex may contain an additional undiscovered 2.4 billion barrels of oil and 13 trillion cubic feet of gas. The Board is also working to develop potential resource estimates for the deep-water Flemish Pass Basin.

Industry has been paying increasing attention to deeper water prospects in the Flemish Pass, South Whale and Carson/ Bonnition Basins. Record levels of seismic data collection in recent years, a prerequisite to drilling, are expected to translate into heightened exploration activity over the next several years. 

 
 
Photo: Canadian Imperial Venture Corp.
Workers at Port au Port #1 well
 
Last year, Petro-Canada and Chevron focused their seismic data acquisition efforts in the Flemish Pass. Petro-Canada has stated that it has identified several significant prospects and may drill there next year.

Exploration/Delineation
A renewed interest in the offshore is reflected in higher exploration activity. Over the last four years, $566 million has been spent in exploration/delineation, representing the highest cumulative four-year total since 1989. Exploration work in the offshore last year totalled $160 million and included seismic data collection and the drilling of four wells—two delineation wells (i.e., Hebron and White Rose) and two exploration wells. Onshore, two wells were spudded in Western Newfoundland, near Flat Bay and Deer Lake.

More than $600 million in exploration expenditure commitments over the medium term are registered with the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board. These amounts represent the exploration expenditure commitments of licence holders for the next five years.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Map prepared by the Department of Mines and Energy
A sedimentary basin is a depression in the Earth’s crust in which sediments accumulate. Commercial discoveries of oil are found in sedimentary basins. (Atlantic Geoscience Society)
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Oil and Gas (continued)
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