Resource Assessments for the Labrador South Region (2025 and 2021)
Beicip-Franlab, in collaboration with OilCo, has completed two independent resource assessments over the Labrador South region.
Using the modern 2D and 3D seismic datasets, OilCo identified and delineated the slope to deep water Chidley Basin, which was the focus of the 2021 Labrador South call for bids by the C-NLOPB and was defined in the 2021 resource assessment for Chidley Basin.
In 2025, exploration focus expanded to the Hawke Basin in the slope to deepwater offshore Labrador. This area is the subject of the 2025 resource assessment.
The two basin models completed for the Labrador South region highlight high oil and gas prospectivity in a large number of structural and stratigraphic traps. An estimated potential of 37.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent (P50 in-place unrisked volumes) has been calculated.
While the slope to deepwater offshore Labrador basins are undrilled, the high-quality and integrated geoscientific data throughout the region shows significant potential for active petroleum systems. Some scientific evidence includes gas chimneys, bottom simulating reflectors, and seismic amplitude responses.
2025 Resource Assessment – Hawke Basin
- Estimated 9.7 billion barrels of oil and 36.5 trillion cubic feet of gas potential identified in the 2025 resource assessment.
- The Hawke Basin is in the slope to deepwater, southeast of the shelfal, gas prolific Hopedale Basin. No wells have been drilled in this frontier basin.
- Extensively covered by modern 2D long offset broadband seismic acquired by TGS/PGS and OilCo.
- Play types include structural and structural/stratigraphic traps in the synrift to post rift Cretaceous section.
- Geoscientific studies including: seabed coring, geochemisty, satellite seeps, seismic interpretation, rock physics modeling and basin modeling, have been undertaken in the region and provide critical insights into the timing and volume of hydrocarbon generation in the basin.
Read the 2025 resource assessment for Hawke Basin.
2021 Resource Assessment – Chidley Basin
- Estimated 15.4 billion barrels of oil and 6.4 trillion cubic feet of gas potential were identified in the 2021 resource assessment.
- The Chidley Basin is in slope and deepwater, outboard of the gas prolific Hopedale Basin. No exploration wells have been drilled in this frontier basin.
- Extensively covered by modern 2D and 3D long offset broadband seismic acquired by TGS/PGS and OilCo.
- Dominated by a large Cenozoic delta that experienced syn-depositional, gravity driven listric faulting.
- Play types include structural and stratigraphic traps throughout the Cenozoic and primarily stratigraphic traps in the Cretaceous.
- Comprehensive Metocean study for offshore Newfoundland and Labrador updated in 2022.
