The history of hydrocarbon exploration in the Silurian-Devonian Gaspe Belt: 100 years of modest success

Since the first discovery of oil seeps in the Gaspe Peninsula in 1836, hydr ocarbon exploration activity has varied and can be subdivided into five tim e intervals. 1) In the 1860-1950 interval., nearly 70 shallow holes were dr illed, and oil recovery was modest. Nevertheless, a small oil refinery was built in 1900, but dismantled in 1904. 2) In the 1950-1970 interval. hydroc arbon exploration in the Gaspe Peninsula declined. The only noteworthy expl oration effort was between 1967 and 1970 by Gulf Oil Ltd., who drilled the 3536 in deep Gulf Sunny Bank No. I well in 1970, Although dry, this well be came a valuable source of information on the Devonian succession of eastern Gaspe. 3) In the 1970s, there was a renewed interest in hydrocarbon explor ation in the peninsula, and the Quebec Government founded the Societe Quebe coise d'Initiative P6etroliere (SOQUIP). At the same time, a research centr e, the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS-Petrole), was f ormed to support SOQUIP's exploration activities. Seismic profiling, drilli ng, and various laboratory investigations, mainly in northeastern Gaspe, re sulted in a much better understanding of the area, but no significant hydro carbons were discovered. 4) In the 1980-95 interval, there was a precipitou s decline in exploration activity. SOQUIP and other major hydrocarbon corpo rations left the peninsula. Although some land was acquired by junior explo ration companies, they had limited exploration programs and minimal success . 5) Since 1995, hydrocarbon exploration activity has increased significant ly, in part due to an important oil discovery in 1995 in western Newfoundla nd. Shell Canada acquired the exploration rights to a large area of the Sil urian-Devonian Gaspe Belt in the northeastern part of the peninsula. They i nitiated a large-scale research project in order to evaluate the reservoir potential of the Silurian-Devonian carbonates and coarse-grained siliciclas tics and to understand source rock distribution in the peninsula. The resul ts of this research constitute the main part of this special issue of the B ulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology. Finally, recent drilling by Junex In c. delineated a 500 MMcf/80 acre gas field in fractured Devonian limestone. This gas pool is expected to produce in the fall of 2001.