NOVA SCOTIA CANADA: GEOSCIENCE

Millions being spent on Geoscience

Because there is an urgent need to better understand the petroleum geoscience of offshore Nova Scotia, more than a dozen studies costing millions of dollars are set to improve the understanding of petroleum systems of offshore Nova Scotia. They include studies on such topics as reservoir distribution and heat flow. “Nova Scotia competes on a global level to attract exploration dollars,” said Barry Clouter, chair of the Offshore/Onshore Technologies Association of Nova Scotia (OTANS). “The better these exploration companies understand the region’s geology, the more likely they are to come and spend those dollars here in our province.”

Major projects include performing an electromagnetic imaging (EM) program, a Nova Scotia Regional Offshore Geoscience Initiative (more on these projects on Pages 17 and 18), and the creation of a web-based geoscience Data Management Center (more on this project on page 23), which are being completed to attract new companies to Nova Scotia’s offshore region.

Sandy MacMullin, Director of Resource Assessment & Royalties with the Nova Scotia Department of Energy, says more than a dozen studies and projects are currently underway. “We are constantly examining existing geoscience and related offshore policies, with a view to keeping them current for today’s exploration industry,” MacMullin says.

Department of Energy geologists recently conducted interviews with oil and gas company staff in Nova Scotia, Alberta and Texas to determine what the industry required. After those meetings, the federal and provincial governments, and their agencies, began to collaborate to fill in the blanks and to initiate important geoscience and new policies work that will lead to more exploration activity for offshore Nova Scotia.

The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (www.cnsopb.ns.ca) is a joint federal-provincial organization. As part of the CNSOPB’s mandate in offshore petroleum resource stewardship, geoscience staff are very active in studying and publishing research on the province’s resource potential.

Provincially, technical projects are also completed by staff at the Nova Scotia Department of Energy and through the Offshore Energy Technical Research Association.

Overall, the Nova Scotia Department of Energy (www.gov.ns.ca/energy) has invested more than $7.5 million in research and development, new online delivery models, and laboratory equipment to secure better access to scientific information.

The Department also supports the Offshore Energy Technical Research Association (OETR: www.offshoreenergyresearch.ca/oetr) which encourages and funds research that builds geoscience knowledge about Nova Scotia’s offshore oil and gas potential.

In addition, the Department supports the Offshore Energy and Environmental Research Association (OEER: www.offshoreenergyresearch.ca/oeer) by sponsoring studies on a variety of environmental matters, including the effects of energy exploration on the marine environment. The studies will assess the potential impacts of petroleum exploration, development and production, and renewable energy technologies (ocean currents, wind, tides and waves) on the marine environment.

Petroleum Research Atlantic Canada (PRAC: www.pr-ac.ca) is a federally incorporated, public-private partnership formed in 2002, when members of industry, academia and government came together to find a way to build regional petroleum-related research and development capacity. PRAC has a strong mandate to coordinate R&D activities, such as petroleum geoscience research in Atlantic Canada.

Nova Scotia universities, Halifax-based Dalhousie University (www.dal.ca) and Saint Mary’s University (www.smu.ca) are strong research institutes for offshore Nova Scotia. Some major studies highlighted are (see Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board: www.cnsopb.ns.ca):

• The Upper Jurassic Abenaki Formation offshore Nova Scotia: A seismic and geological perspective (completed)
• Hydrocarbon potential of Deep Water Scotia Slope (completed)
• Forensic review of recent Sable Subbasin exploration wells 2000-2004 (including Cree, Citnalta & Arcadia) (on-going)
• Technical summaries of Scotian Shelf: Significant and commercial discoveries (completed)

The following are from the Nova Scotia Department of Energy (www.gov.ns.ca/energy):

• Sydney Basin report (completed)
• Evaluation of the petroleum systems by 1D and 2D numerical modeling and geochemical analysis in the area of the most recent exploration wells on the deepwater Scotian Slope, Offshore Nova Scotia (completed)

The following are from Offshore Energy Research (www.offshoreenergyresearch.ca/oetr):

• Dr. Louden: Analysis of petroleum systems on the Scotian Slope using thermal and seismic technique (on-going)
• Dr. Pe-Piper: The study of river sources and the transfer of sands to deepwater Scotian Basin (on-going)
• Dr. Wach: Reservoir distribution and characterization: Scotian Shelf to Slope linked depositional systems (on-going)
• Archiving and reprocessing of 2-D and 3-D seismic reflection data set over the Jurassic Age Carbonate Bank (via CNSOPB’s new Data Management Centre (DMC), (on-going)

The following are from Petroleum Research Atlantic Canada (www.pr-ac.ca):

• Deepwater seafloor rendering and data extraction for environmental and geohazard assessment: A comparison study of 3D seismic reflection (completed)
• Paleo-geothermal anomalies associated with salt structures: Implications for hydrocarbon exploration in the Atlantic offshore (completed)
• Investigation of the relationship between reservoir conditions and seismic acoustic response (on-going)
• Evolution of rift and rifted margin sedimentary basins: Numerical investigation of tectonics, sedimentation and salt-related structures (on-going)

The federal government supports offshore geoscience through the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), part of Natural Resources Canada. With offices across Canada, the GSC provides comprehensive geoscience knowledge. The Atlantic division is located at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography-Canada’s principle oceanographic facility-in Dartmouth, part of the Halifax Regional Municipality. With research laboratories, sample curation and data management facilities, and a field operations unit, GSC-Atlantic is active in the acquisition, analysis and distribution of data and interpretations relating to the offshore.

As the above titles show, in recent years, several research projects have focused on the geology of the continental shelf and slope off Nova Scotia, including basin evolution, petroleum systems, shallow subsurface structure, and geologic hazards.

The following list highlights a few of the current research initiatives:

• Refining the age control of the Cretaceous and Early Cenozoic basin fill, through the integration of new biostratigraphic interpretations with seismic and well sample information. An emphasis on event stratigraphy is leading to a set of consistent standards for interpretation.
• Mapping the extent and character of salt structures beneath the outer shelf and slope and examining, through collaborative modelling studies, the factors that control the deformation of salt.
• Addressing the provenance of reservoir sands, including transport mechanisms and pathways, through combined studies of offshore seismic stratigraphy and well logs with onshore analogues
• Studying the processes that affect the stability of seabed sediments through the acquisition and interpretation of high resolution seismic reflection data and sediment cores. Efforts are being made to predict the temporal and spatial risk of the occurrence of landslides and turbidity currents, and to identify seafloor instabilities due to faulting, shallow gas, gas hydrates and bottom currents. Recent access to 3D industry data and its integration with GSC’s shallow subsurface data have provided important new insights into shallow geohazard distribution and origin.

Scientists at the GSC have a long history of studying the Atlantic continental margin, starting with airborne and marine geophysical surveys in the late 1950s. Decades of multidisciplinary surveying have yielded complete coverage of the magnetic and gravity fields in the region, highlighting the detailed geometry of the margin and its sedimentary basins. Geodynamic modeling and deep multi-channel seismic profiling started in the 1980s. This helped researchers to develop an understanding of the extensional development of the margins in a rift setting, enabling predictions of the thermal history of the sediments and petroleum systems.

More recent interpretations of extensive multi-channel seismic data sets, borehole samples and laboratory studies have underpinned numerous studies of basin geology and resource potential. Many of the extensive data holdings are available through online web access. Mapping of the surficial geology also has a long history. The GSC is a world-recognized center of expertise on geohazard assessment in support of offshore oil and gas development.

The numerous regional maps published over the years show increasing levels of detail and resolution as technology advanced, from single-channel acoustic mapping in the late 1960s, to modern swath-bathymetric mapping and acoustic-backscatter imaging. Today, these maps, high-resolution seismic reflection data and sediment cores support investigations of not just surficial geology, but also slope stability and hazards to petroleum resource development.

At http://basin.gsca.nrcan.gc.ca, the basin database includes both basic and interpreted information for most petroleum industry exploration wells and location data for a large number of seismic surveys. Basic well data includes interpretive data such as formation picks, geochemical analysis, age determinations and vitrinite reflection values.