Offshore Hydrocarbon Potential of the Northern Labrador Shelf and Baffin Bay

C. D. Jauer, J.B.W. Wielens, and G. N. Oakey
Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic), Dartmouth, NS

A reassessment of the hydrocarbon potential of the Lady Franklin and northern Saglek Basins is a major component of the New Energy Options for Northerners program. From the northernmost Gjoa G-37 test south to the significant gas discovery at Snorri J-90 with 105 Bcf , there are eleven wells over a span of 1500 km. The only other significant hydrocarbon find, the Hekja 0-71 well has an estimated 3 Tcf ; these known deposits are gas and condensate. Further north along Baffin Island at Scott Inlet, oil seeps from the sea floor are documented. There are at least two viable petroleum systems present in an environment that should also favour gas hydrate formation. A possible analog to the petroleum systems of the Saglek and Lady Franklin Basins in age and structural style is the high-latitude Norwegian gas field at Ormen Lange, from which comparisons will be drawn. A major data recovery effort to access some 30,000 km of vintage seismic and reworked potential field data has yielded tantalizing clues to the nature of the petroleum systems present in terms of their structural evolution, thermal history, depositional environment and potential for new reserves.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90039©2005 AAPG Calgary, Alberta, June 16-19, 2005