‘Boa Galatea’ preparing to embark upon EM survey for Nalcor

Nalcor has signed a multi-client license agreement with Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA (EMGS) for regional 3D Electromagnetic (EM) Survey data over frontier areas of Newfoundland’s offshore.

The Boa Galatea, the vessel that will carry out the survey, is in the Port of St. John’s preparing to start work. The EM survey will initially target the Flemish Pass Basin, where recent major oil discoveries have been made – including Statoil’s Bay du Nord discovery.

The survey will collect 4,000 square kilometres of 3D EM data that will be calibrated to the recent discoveries and it will also image key prospects in nearby areas. Integrated data delivery will be available to the global industry in early 2015 prior to the close of the scheduled license round in the fall of 2015. The survey is supported by industry pre-funding.

“Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore basins are relatively underexplored, particularly in the slope and deepwater,” said Richard Wright, Manager, Exploration for Nalcor Energy.

“Investing in the EM survey with EMGS will provide the global industry with new data to identify and de-risk new leads as well as high-grade existing prospects in Newfoundland and Labrador’s emerging frontier area.”

EMGS is using 3D Controlled-Source Electromagnetic (CSEM) technology for the survey to measure the electrical resistivity of offshore, subsurface sediments. Integrating 3D EM data in the exploration workflow allows for a better classification of prospects by downgrading or upgrading the probability of finding hydrocarbons in the reservoir and improves the evaluation of the size of the accumulation.

Through its exploration strategy, Nalcor is leading the exploration of Newfoundland and Labrador’s frontier basins by making strategic investments in new geoscience data and delivering scientific insights to the global oil and gas industry. Investing in EM data is complimentary to Nalcor’s seismic investments and provides the global industry with an additional tool to reduce pre-drill exploration risk in Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore.