Petroleum geology is easy (I)

Also, I am obviously excited about the fact that we are now seeing some onshore exploration which is taking place in Parsons Pond. I am very pleased to see that Nalcor has used some of its revenues to help some of the smaller junior oil companies – and I am trying to think of the names now. I think Leprechaun Resources was one; Vulcan Minerals is another one, and PDI and these companies. There is, in particular, some interesting exploration going on in up in Parsons Pond. Parsons Pond – there have been reports on oil coming out of Parsons Pond since, I think, 1840. That was when the first report about oil bubbling through the ground must have come from Parsons Pond into government. I know the first oil well in the Province was drilled in 1867.

It is very interesting that the year Canada joined together, the various provinces in Canada joined together, that the first oil well in Parsons Pond was drilled. They never did find oil in commercial quantities in Parsons Pond, but people say they did not go down far enough and that it is there, but we will see. We will see, and if we can have discoveries there, if we can discover oil onshore – and there is other exploration going on as well in the Deer Lake Basin, I think Deer Lake Oil and Gas is drilling there. Of course, onshore oil activity is a different industry than offshore. Offshore is obviously very expensive, you have to have these major companies that have access to great sums of capital. I understand to drill a well offshore it is $200 million to $300 million. So if you drill a well and there is nothing there, it has obviously been quite expensive, whereas onshore drilling is much cheaper.

- Tom Marshall, Petroleum Geologist, March 25, 2010