ABSTRACT: An Overview of Exploration Trends in the Scotian Basin, Offshore Nova Scotia, Canada

John R. Hogg, PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada

The Scotian Basin, under Atlantic Canada's continental shelf and slope, encompasses a corridor 100 to 150 km wide by 900 km long on the southern margin of the province of Nova Scotia. Since 1967, a total of 103 exploration wells have been drilled within the basin; the vast majority being located within the Sable Subbasin. With the first production of natural gas from Sable Offshore Energy Inc. on December 31,1999, a new round of exploration has begun, in earnest, for additional hydrocarbon reserves in both conventional plays types of the Sable Subbasin and also on new exploration licenses across the Scotian Basin.

The Scotian Basin is divided into a series of geologically distinct Subbasins. The only economic hydrocarbons discovered, to date, are present within the Sable Subbasin and include significant gas and modest quantities of oil and condensate reserves.

Although tectonically passive, many portions of the Scotian Basin are extensively deformed by movement associated with the Late Triassic-aged Argo Formation halites. The salts produce halokinetic swells, walls, ridges and domes as well as potential subsalt exploration prospects.

Future exploration efforts within the deepwater exploration licenses will focus on 2D seismic to define leads and 3D seismic to further enhance and define prospects and select drilling locations. Play types associated with the deepwater Scotian Slope are almost exclusively related to salt induced features. Reservoirs for deepwater prospects will be found within sand rich Early Cretaceous and Early Tertiary-aged subaqueous channel and channel levees, turbidities, and submarine fan deposits.

Search and Discovery Article #90907©2000 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, London, Ontario, Canada