Greenland's Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (BMP) is hoping to build up the interest of oil companies in its sector's prospectivity by opening a new offshore licensing round in its western deep waters.
BMP has sent out invitations to companies to nominate blocks, with the available area covering blocks between 63°N and 68°N. Nominations should be submitted by March 26, with the closing date for applications put at Oct. 1. The licensing round is expected to include all blocks nominated by companies and areas covered by seismic surveys carried out in 1999 and 2000.
Recent attempts to find hydrocarbons offshore West Greenland have proved disappointing, with Statoil's recent Qulleq-1 well coming up dry on the Fylla license in September. This was the first well in more than 20 years offshore West Greenland. A second well is also included in the exploration obligations for the Fylla license, but it seems unlikely this probe will be spudded. Statoil is due to make a decision on what to do by mid-March.
Phillips Petroleum is also due to spud a wildcat west of Greenland in the Sisimiut license north of Fylla in 2002. It is evaluating whether to go ahead with this probe, and is in the midst of examining the results of the Fylla well, in which it has a 34% stake.
The Greenland government and Denmark originally authorized this licensing round in April 1999. Further, it was decided to open the door after Oct. 1, 1999, for applications in the areas offshore West Greenland between 60°N and 63°N, between 68°N and 71°N, onshore Disko-Nuussuaq, West Greenland, and in Jameson Land, East Greenland.
Exploration during the 1970s saw the acquisition of 22,977 miles (37,000kmf) of 2D seismic data and the drilling of five wells, all declared dry at the time. Consequently, all licenses were relinquished in 1979. A new evaluation of one, Kangâmiut-1, suggests that classification may have been premature, and that the well may have drilled into an oil or condensate field.
The 1990s have seen acquisition of some 15,525 miles (25,000km) of new, nonexclusive seismic data offshore and the discovery of extensive oil seeps and impregnation in Palaeogene basalts and Cretaceous sediments onshore. Breakthroughs in the 1990s demonstrated the West Greenland basins have much larger hydrocarbon potential that previously acknowledged. The first breakthrough came with the realization that the sedimentary basins on continental crust are much more extensive than previously thought. The area off southern and central West Greenland that may be prospective is comparable in size to the North Sea.
The oldest sediments in the basins are probably of Early Cretaceous age, and a rifting event, probably in the Aptian-Albian, formed one class of rotated fault-block plays. Renewed rifting, associated with the start of seafloor spreading in the Labrador Sea in the Paleocene, formed a second generation of fault-block plays. One of these, which shows large flat spots, was the target for the Statoil group's 6354/4-1 well.
Additional plays may exist as possible stratigraphic traps, basin floor fans and hanging-wall fans along active faults and fault escarpments in Upper Cretaceous and Palaeocene sediments. A seismic bright spot that shows a strong AVO anomaly may indicate the presence of one stratigraphic trap at only 0.6 mile (1km) depth in Eocene sediments above Palaeocene volcanics.
The second breakthrough was the discovery of widespread oil seepage and impregnation in Cretaceous sediments and Paleocene basalts exposed in the onshore Nuussuaq Basin. Five types of oil have been recognized from a Paleocene delta-front source rock that has been sampled (Maraat-type), a Mesozoic marine source rock that has not been found (Itilli-type) and nonmarine and marine source rocks of presumed local importance only.
A clue to the identity of the Mesozoic marine source rock may be the presence of high-quality, organic-rich mudstones of Cenomanian-Turonian age in the Sverdrup Basin in the Canadian arctic (Núñez-Betelu 1993). And the presence of organic-rich mudstones with associated wet gas in the deeper, thermally postmature part of the Umiivik-1 borehole suggests the presence on a Cenomanian-Turonian source rock. Biomarker characteristics of the Sverdrup basin mudstones have notable similarities with those of the Itilli-type oils of West Greenland.
For information on the nomination process, contact BMP Deputy Minister BMP Hans Kristian Schønwandt, +299 346802, or visit www.bmp.gl.

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