A trio of world-class oil majors — Chevron Corp., Statoil SA and Repsol YPF — on Thursday launched an ambitious endeavor to jointly explore Atlantic Canada’s deepwater. Separately Chevron and Statoil, a newcomer to Canada’s offshore, also agreed to explore a deepwater region of Canada’s Beaufort Sea.

The joint ventures are with subsidiaries Chevron Canada Ltd., Statoil Canada Ltd. and Repsol E&P Canada Ltd.; financial details were not disclosed.

Chevron’s Canadian arm is one of the country’s biggest oil and gas developers with oil and gas resources offshore Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), in Alberta and in the Northwest Territories. The Calgary-based unit also has resource stakes in the Mackenzie Delta, as well as a refinery and network of gasoline stations in British Columbia. Repsol’s Canadian unit now is developing four blocks offshore Canada in the Jeanne d’Arc and Central Ridge basins.

“These agreements significantly strengthen our exploration position in Atlantic Canada and in the Beaufort Sea and reaffirm our commitment to achieving long-term growth in Canada,” said Chevron Canada President Jeff Lehrmann.

Statoil’s Tim Dodson, who is executive vice president of exploration, said the agreements would add a new leasehold to the Norwegian producer’s “already extensive Arctic portfolio. Strengthening our position in the Flemish Pass Basin and obtaining early entrance to the Orphan Basin and Beaufort Sea provides us access to large potential resources and increases the optionality of our exploration portfolio.”

The Orphan Basin and Flemish Pass Basin agreements “reflect Repsol’s commitment to expanding its presence in North America, and in particular Canada’s East Coast,” Repsol, based in Spain, said. The company also said it wanted to work with Chevron and Statoil “to achieve exploration success in these highly prospective emerging frontier basins.”

In the Orphan Basin joint venture (JV) Repsol and Statoil would participate in one of Chevron’s operated exploration wells, which is offshore NL on exploration license 1074R and covers around 604,000 hectares. Chevron would hold a 65% equity interest, while Repsol would have a 20% stake and Statoil would have a 15% stake.

The trio also teamed up to successfully secure bids on two exploration parcels in the Flemish Pass Basin offshore NL. The producers plan to jointly explore Parcel NL 11-02-01, which is 247,016 hectares, as well as NL 11-02-02, which is 186,780 hectares. The parcels are about 400 kilometers east of St. John’s, NL in water depths of 700-2,600 meters. In this JV Statoil would be the operator and hold a half-stake; Chevron is a 40% stakeholder while Repsol has a 10% stake.

In the Beaufort Sea farmout Chevron (60%) plans to conduct a 3-D seismic program with Statoil (40%) tentatively for this summer. The proposed seismic program includes a survey of EL 460, which is a 2,060-square-kilometer block that is about 120 kilometers offshore in water depths of 800-1,800 meters.

©Copyright 2012Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.