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Shell Canada Plans 3-D Survey of Newfoundland’s Orphan Basin
Shell Canada Ltd. plans to conduct a 3-D survey this summer of the Orphan Basin, located in the deepwater offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, after acquiring a 20% interest in eight exploration licenses. The interest was acquired under a farm-in agreement with ExxonMobil Canada and Imperial Oil Resources.
“This farm-in is consistent with Shell Canada’s renewed focus on growth — in this case, we’re broadening the scope of our exploration activities by gaining access to a new, unexplored deepwater basin,” said Dave Collyer, vice president of Shell Canada’s Frontier division. “Advances in technology are allowing industry to pursue these challenging, but potentially high-reward, deepwater ventures. We look forward to returning to offshore Newfoundland, an area that we last explored in the early 1990s.”
The eight land parcels are located 202 miles offshore Newfoundland. They were acquired initially in December 2003 by Chevron Canada Resources (50%), ExxonMobil Canada (25%) and Imperial Oil Resources (25%) (see Daily GPI, Dec. 24, 2003). Under the terms of the agreement, ExxonMobil and Imperial Oil will each reduce their shares by 10% to provide Shell with its 20% interest.
Shell Canada conducted the first Orphan Basin exploration in 1969, and exploration permits and licenses were issued throughout the 1970s and 1980s. However, most of the deepwater remains unexplored. Up to now, drilling has been restricted to the western edge of the basin.
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