Quebec: Junex 2D seismic nears in Macasty shale quest

Junex, Quebec City, has begun line-cutting for a 250 line-km 2D seismic program to evaluate the oil potential of the Macasty shale and deeper geologic horizons on five permits totaling 233,275 acres on Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence offshore Quebec.

Vertical and horizontal drilling phases could follow if the seismic identifies promising targets. Junex interprets the top of Macasty to be at 800-2,200 m deep and in the oil window.

The Macasty is the stratigraphic equivalent of the Utica shale in the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the oil-rich Utica/Point Pleasant shale in Ohio. Junex’s mapping indicates that the Macasty averages 80 m in thickness, twice that encountered in wells previously drilled by other operators outside the Deep Macasty Fairway.