Projects
Onshore Petroleum, Bay St. George NL
Strategically situated in the North Atlantic near major American and European markets, Newfoundland is a pivotal petroleum producing area with a growing petroleum services industry. Offshore Newfoundland currently produces approximately 350,000 bbls of oil per day from its first fields, Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose. Western Newfoundland, both onshore and offshore, also has the potential for world-class discoveries. The geologic targets are an extension of proven petroleum systems that extend along eastern North America from Texas and the Appalachian region.
Western Newfoundland
Bay St. George Geology
The Bay St. George Basin is a Carboniferous aged strike-slip successor basin overlying the Western Margin of the Appalachian Orogen. Basal lacustrine source rocks are proven to be mature by virtue of the oil discovery in Flat Bay #1. Upper Sequence evaporites provide excellent sealing rocks for the potential clastic reservoirs. All of the elements of an active petroleum system are in place. The basin presents high impact, large reserve potential in an onshore Canadian location. It contains several kilometers of clastic terrestrial/lacustrine sediments overlain by a shallow marine evaporitic sequence and a terrestrial sequence. Reservoir rocks occur within all sequences though the exploration effort thus far has focused on the lower fluvial sequence. The closest analogue for the basin is the Sussex basin in New Brunswick where Corridor Resources has made a commercial gas field discovery at McCully (1 Tcf).
Vulcan and its 50% joint venture partner, Investcan Energy Corporation, own three permits covering approximately 236,000 acres in the onshore Bay St. George Basin. The company discovered a new oil system in 1999 with the Flat Bay #1 well. That well penetrated in excess of 100 metres of a petroleum-bearing formation less than 286 metres deep. Follow-up wells demonstrate a significant potential aerial extent for the Flat Bay oil deposit. The deposit, because of its low natural reservoir permeability, and high pour point oil requires innovative engineering solutions to potentially extract the oil. There is currently no production in the Bay St. George Basin and Vulcan and Investcan are pioneering the exploration and development effort.
Click to view map of Western Newfoundland Oil Interests
Bay St. George Petroleum Targets
Flat Bay Core Hole Location Map
Flat Bay Test Hole Compilation Core Photos Analysis
Database
The Company has acquired approximately 400 line kilometres of seismic data and surveyed the entire basin with high-resolution aeromagnetics, as well as a GORE Amplified Geochemical Imaging Survey. Vulcan has drilled seven shallow (less than 1000m) exploratory wells in the basin and two deep wells.
Prospects
Several prospects have been mapped with seismic ranging in depths from 700m-4500m. Areal sizes vary from 2 sq. km with potential unproven field sizes ranging from 1 million -100 million barrels of oil equivalent based on internal geoscientific evaluation (NI51-101 non-compliant). The recent focus was on the flanks of the Flat Bay Anticline which transects the petroleum permits. A location at Robinsons #1 was drilled in 2009 to a depth of 3560m. It was the first deep well in the basin. The well encountered natural gas shows in several sandstones interbedded with shales and siltstones over a gross interval of 1,290 meters.
Red Brook #2 was drilled in 2009 on the west side of the anticline to a depth of 1,965m and flowed natural gas to surface on drill stem tests. Both wells require fracture stimulation to properly measure flow rates. Towards that end, pressure testing and injectivity testing on the Robinsons #1 and Red Brook #2 wells were completed in late fall 2010. These test results provide the necessary parameters to design the optimal hydraulic fracture stimulation of the zones. Based on the results of this Phase I completion program the Company expects to carry out a stimulation program to adequately test the flow rates of the prioritized zones as soon as equipment is available in the area to carry out the operations. The results, combined with additional delineation drilling will provide the necessary information to support a natural gas resource and reserve assessment for the area.
Flat Bay #1 was re-entered during 2010 to acquire additional reservoir information. Flat Bay #1 is cased to a depth of 239 metres and encountered a thick oil charged conglomerate in excess of 100 metres gross thickness commencing at a depth of 120 metres. Though initial flow backs immediately following fracture stimulation (in 2003) were encouraging with an increasing oil cut in the retrieved frac fluid, the well’s flow rate and oil cut decreased significantly and production could not be sustained. Preliminary analysis indicates that the reservoir temperatures at the shallow depths of Flat Bay #1 are below the measured pour point temperature of the oil which prohibits the flow of oil into the wellbore. As a result, part of the 2010 seismic program was designed to trace the Flat Bay reservoir down-dip to a favourable target area in a higher reservoir temperature regime. It is the Company’s plan to undertake a core drilling program to better understand the Flat Bay reservoir character and oil distribution to be followed up with a well targeting potential down-dip extensions of the reservoir.