Eastern Canada : a world class exploration and producing hotspot

A summary of the petroleum industry's current exploration and production activity in Eastern Canada was presented. Current activity is largely due to the development of oil and gas wells discovered in the 1970s and 1980s, however, exploration activity is again on the rise with new leasing and proposed drilling in offshore Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The attraction is the existence of oil and gas fields with large reserves and the potential to discover significant additional resources. Known reserves have the potential to produce 0.5 million barrels of oil per day and 1.0 billion cubic feet of gas per day by 2005. The major plays include: (1) the Sable Island area which is largely natural gas, (2) the Grand Banks of Newfoundland which is largely oil with associated gas, (3) the Labrador Shelf which is largely natural gas, (4) West Newfoundland which has both oil and gas, and (5) the Anticosti Island which is a possible gas play. 4 figs