Jock N. McCracken¹, Andrew C. Barnwell², Annemone Haager³, Peter Kubica¹, Ken I. Saunders¹, Christian Zwach⁴

(1) Petro-Canada, Calgary, AB
(2) Norsk Hydro Canada Oil & Gas, Calgary, AB
(3) Target GeoConsulting, Aachen, Germany
(4) Norsk Hydro ASA, Oslo, Norway

ABSTRACT: Exploring the Outer Limits of the Upper Jurassic Source Rocks on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Canada

The recent expansion of exploration and development on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland requires that source rocks, the cornerstone of the petroleum system, be fully understood with regard to richness, geographic distribution and hydrocarbon potential. The Jeanne d'Arc Basin is an established petroleum province within the Grand Banks with approximately 2.4 billion barrels of known recoverable oil. The Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) "Egret Member" source rock is the main source for the producing Hibernia Field; plus the Terra Nova, Hebron/Ben Nevis and White Rose Fields, which are in development or under evaluation. Recent land sale activity, however, has been stretching the potential core exploration area beyond the traditional published productive limits of these source rocks, into the Flemish Pass, Cumberland/Dominion area, Anson Graben and Carson Basin. The presence or absence of source rocks is the greatest risk in these under-explored basins.

Measured source rock data from both public and internal sources were compiled, screened and re-interpreted. Wireline crossplot techniques and geophysical data provided control for mapping thickness trends and depositional limits in areas with little or no geochemical data. Expelled hydrocarbon volumes were estimated by integrating the source rock maps with maturity data and basin modeling results. In the end, detailed source rock studies allow us to move beyond the Jeanne d'Arc Basin to the outer limits of the source potential.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90906©2001 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado