Newfoundland’s Terra Nova field dealt a setback, reserves slashed by 13%

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

The Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board has slashed its proven plus probable oil reserves for the offshore Terra Nova field by 13 percent to 354 million barrels from its previous 405 million barrels.

Of the revised total, 87 million barrels has already been produced at the Petro-Canada-operated project, which is Newfoundland’s second offshore project after Hibernia.

The updated estimates also slashed total discovered gas resources to 44.9 billion cubic feet from 269 billion cubic feet, although gas production is not on the immediate horizon for Newfoundland.

The regulator listed Terra Nova’s proven reserves, those given a 90 percent chance of recovery, at 224 million barrels. Probable are given a 50 percent chance of recovery.

The board said the biggest setback occurred in the so-called Far East region of the field, which tumbled to 45 million barrels of proven plus probable from 162 million barrels, while the East Flank region lost 4 million barrels to stand at 144 million barrels. Offsetting those losses, the Graben region surged to 165 million barrels from 95 million barrels.

In a separate assessment, the board said undiscovered hydrocarbon resources in the newly emerging Flemish Pass basin are rated at 1.7 billion barrels, with a 50 percent probability of being recovered, with expected field size ranging from 44 million to 528 million barrels.

The basin, comparable in size to the Jeanne d’Arc basin, which holds the Hibernia, Terra Nova, White Rose and Hebron-Ben Nevis fields, has barely been scratched by explorers who have so far drilled only five wells.

Although no commercial accumulations of hydrocarbons have yet been found in the Flemish Pass basin, hydrocarbon shows have been encountered, raising hopes along with the Orphan basin that Newfoundland can still become a long-term producing region.