Page 11 - NorthAmOil Week 04 2023

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Three new areas to be opened up for 2023

bidding round in Newfoundland and Labrador

NEWFOUNDLAND CANADA’S Newfoundland and Labrador will found itself competing for investments globally
AND LABRADOR include three new areas in its 2023 offshore bid- in the offshore hydrocarbon industry.
ding round, according to a senior provincial gov- The last time the province staged a bidding
ernment official. round was the summer of 2022, with the results
The Oil and Gas Corp. of Newfoundland unveiled in November.
and Labrador’s (OilCo) CEO, Jim Keating, said Five successful bids were received for the
that in the summer bids would be issued by the Eastern Newfoundland region worth a total of
provincial regulator, the Canada-Newfound- CAD238mn ($179mn) in work commitments
land and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board and covering 12,300 square km. No bids were
(C-NLOPB), for licences in the three new areas received for the South-Eastern Newfoundland
of Carson, Salar and Bonnition in the south and region.
east of the province. The highest bid of CAD182mn ($137mn)
OilCo is the province-owned crown corpo- came from a joint venture comprising Exxon-
ration that collects and interprets seismic and Mobil Canada with a 70% stake and QPI Energy
geological offshore data. with a 30% interest for Parcel 8, which spans
“These are large Lower Tertiary structures 2,677 square km. BP Canada Energy submitted
and are prolific like what you see in Guyana. the next successful offer, worth CAD16.5mn
Geographically the areas are located in the water ($12.4mn) for Parcel 12, which spans 2,661
depths of 400-4,000 metres,” he said. square km.
The new areas are frontier areas and Carson A joint venture comprising Equinor Canada
and Salar contain the high-prospect Blue Jacket with a 60% stake and BP with a 40% interest was
discovery, which OilCo found following a 3D declared the successful bidder for the other three
survey, Keating said. parcels – the 2,523-square km Parcel 26, the
“The ideal depth where most of Newfound- 2,737-square km Parcel 27 and the 1,636-square
land’s prospectivity lies is in water depths of km Parcel 28. The joint venture partners offered
1,000-2,500 metres. All it will take is one or two CAD15.2mn ($11.4mn), CAD14mn ($10.5mn)
major discoveries and that will have a transfor- and CAD10.8mn ($8.1mn) for the parcels
mational impact,” Keating said. “Look at Guy- respectively.
ana, for example.” The licence contracts are due to be signed
Traditionally, the C-NLOPB would issue calls shortly and the next step will be for the suc-
for bids on an average twice per year for its off- cessful bidders to submit their bid deposits,
shore parcels. But that changed with the Covid- which equate to 25% of the total bid amount,
19 pandemic as Newfoundland and Labrador Keating said.™

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