• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Greenland; Qulleq
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.453.6172; http://geus.dk/publications/review-greenland-00/gsb189p24-33.pdf

The summer of 2000 was exciting for everyone inter-ested in the petroleum geology and exploration of West Greenland. The first offshore well in more than 20 years was drilled by the Statoil group in the Fylla licence area, and seismic acquisition activity offshore West Greenland was more intense than previous years with four new surveys being carried out (Fig. 1). Expectations were high when drilling of the Qulleq-1 well was initiated in July 2000, not only with the licensees and the authorities, but also with the public. The well was classified as highly confidential, but nevertheless all information available was closely followed by the press, especially in Greenland and Denmark, but also internationally (see Ghexis 2000). Disappointment was equally high when the press release in September 2000 reported that the well was dry. Since that time much technical work has been carried out by Statoil and its consultants (Pegrum et al. 2001) and by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), and a more balanced view of the positive and negative surprises from the well can now be presented. When the licence was granted in December 1996, the Fylla licence area consisted of two sub-areas totalling 9487 km2. Recently the Statoil group relinquished the eastern sub-area, which covers 2645 km2, after having fulfilled their exploration obligations (Fig. 1). As a con-sequence, all data within the eastern sub-area are now ‘open file ’ and available from GEUS. The relinquished eastern sub-area is included in the forthcoming licens-ing round, which has a planned closing date in early 2002. Although the Qulleq-1 well did not discover hydro-carbons, it has produced new information important to the evaluation of the petroleum exploration potential of offshore West Greenland. With a licensing round in prospect and the several seismic surveys carried out in the summer of 2000 providing many new and interesting exploration targets, Greenland is prepared for contin-ued exploration on a sound geological background, despite the ...