Abstract
The Labrador Sea, extending from the Davis Strait in the north, through the Saglek Basin and down to the Hopedale Basin in the south, is one of the largest under-explored areas along the eastern Canadian Margin. Exploration of this region has focused on the continental shelf with 30 wells drilled during the 1970's and 1980's. Most of the wells targeted shelfal structural traps. No exploration has occurred in the slope and deepwater areas. From 2011 to 2015, long offset, broadband 2D seismic data (42,400 km) has been acquired by TGS-PGS in the slope and deepwater regions. The broadband image quality has led to the identification of significant new plays and leads in a region that was never before considered prospective. Several of these leads have the potential for large accumulations of oil and gas. The possibility for oil plays in the area is supported by the presence of natural oil seeps along the slope that were identified by satellite surveys in 2010. The long offset (8 km cable) seismic data has identified AVO anomalies on the far stacks. A new regional rock physics study (2014-15) has permitted the careful analysis of these AVO leads and this is helping to reduce exploration risk factors. The analysis shows the importance of the long offsets to identify and characterize these Class II AVO anomalies. In 2015, a seabed coring survey was conducted to target areas near the oil seeps and over large potential traps. Early results from this work are positive and analysis will continue through the spring of 2016. Heatflow measurements taken during the coring survey are providing inputs for a basin modelling study. In addition, several of the shelfal wells were resampled and fluid inclusion analysis was performed. Early results are showing the presence of liquid hydrocarbon inclusions. All of this work has led to the identification and analysis of large potential traps that could hold major oil accumulations. This paper will provide insights from the new seismic data and the recent studies and analyses to demonstrate this prospectivity.
