West Greenland is target of new licensing round

The Greenland and Danish governments are this month launcing a new licensing round for selected areas offshore West Greenland between approximately 63°N and 68°N. First Break offers this update. An opening meeting in Copenhagen to launch the latest round of licensing offshore West Greenland was due to be hosted on 1 April 2004. Hopefully the April Fools Day date will have no bearing on the outcome of this latest attempt to persuade the international oil industry, which has shown no great enthusiasm in the past, that Greenland is a viable exploration proposition. Closing date for applications is 1 October 2004 and new licences are expected to be granted at the turn of the year. Four licence areas, all said to be characterised by the presence of giant structures in favourable basinal settings, have been selected for the round. These are: ■ Parts of Lady Franklin Basin between approx 63°N and 65° N covering approx 10 500 km2 ■ Kangaamiut Basin and Ridge around 66°N covering approx 4900 km2 ■ Parts of Ikermiut Fault Zone/Sisimiut Basin between approx 67°N and 68°N covering approx 7000 km2 ■ Parts of the Atammik and Fylla Structural Complexes between approx 63°N and 64°N covering approx 11 200 km2 What has changed since the last licence award in 2002 to Canadian oil company Encana and Nunaoil, Greenland’s own oil company, is that nearly 9000 km of additional seismic data have been acquired off western and southern Greenland. This activity last summer prompted, for the first time ever in Greenland waters, the need for two seismic vessels which were acquiring data until the end of November thereby considerably extending the normal seismic season. TGS-NOPEC continued its longstanding commitment in Greenland by acquiring approximately 7400 km of non-exclusive data. Acquisition was within the new venture areas (3100 km) to provide a better regional grid, to cover actual giant structures and to delineate deep basins. Some 3200 km of data were also acquired within EnCana’s licence area and around 1100 km as part of longer-term activities off southern Greenland. Additionally, approximately 1500 km were acquired off south Greenland by GEUS, the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland) as part of preparations for staking claims beyond 200 nautical miles as described in Article 76 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Following the success in earlier years of using a long streamer to acquire information on hitherto unknown deep structures and basins offshore West Greenland, an even longer streamer of 6000-8000 m was used last year.