The 2010-2011 Disko West Exploration Campaign: Lessons Learnt and the Way Forward

Wim Kouwe

Since 2007 Cairn has entered an active exploration campaign in the Disko West area offshore West Greenland. Exploration targets involved Neogene to Mesozoic plays believed to extend from well-known and studied outcrops of the Disko – Nuussuaq basin onshore Greenland. The outcrops document the Cretaceous – Paleogene rift and break-up history of the oceanic basin between Greenland and CA, with excellent examples of fluvial and marine reservoirs, source rocks and seals, covered by at least 2 km of flood basalts. Oil seeps in numerous outcrops confirm the presence of 5 different petroleum systems ranging in age from Mesozoic to Paleocene. Seismic (2D) and other geophysical data suggest an offshore extension of the onshore Disko – Nuussuaq rift basin. As onshore, the Cretaceous – Paleogene objective section is covered by a thick sequence of Paleogene flood basalts. The persistent observations of offshore oil slicks on satellite imagery provide encouragement that a working petroleum system (oil seeps) is also present below the West Greenland shelf. No wells had been drilled in any of the four large blocks prior to being awarded to Cairn. The nearest offshore well, Hellefisk-1 (ARCO, 1977) is located about 300 km to the south. The well was TD-ed in Paleogene volcanics after demonstrating the presence of excellent reservoir in the overlying Paleogene section. During its 2-summer exploration campaign in 2010-2011 Cairn drilled 5 wildcat wells in the Disko West area, testing a variety of Cretaceous and Tertiary play types. Unfortunately none of the wells encountered commercial quantities of hydrocarbons but some of the wells did encounter oil and gas shows. This was most evident in the Alpha-1 well, where oil shows were reported over a significant section of the Paleogene volcanic sequence in which the well was TD-ed. The 5 wells also provided significant new insights in the Disko West stratigraphy. The information obtained from the drilling campaign has been crucial to complete a full reassessment of Cairn’s Disko West exploration acreage and led to the recognition of untested play concepts which are currently under evaluation.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90177©3P Arctic, Polar Petroleum Potential Conference & Exhibition, Stavanger, Norway, October 15-18, 2013