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A series of Mesozoic sedimentary basins extends across the broad continental shelf of Newfoundland. So far it has been demonstrated that only the Jeanne d'Arc Basin and environs contain potentially commercial quantities of oil and gas. The development in this area of hydrocarbon source rocks, reservoir rocks, source rock maturity, and hydrocarbon migration and trapping mechanisms was controlled by the cyclic development of extensional forces related to the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean. Geophysical exploration of the Grand Banks region began in the early 1950s. The first industry seismic program for the Jeanne d'Arc Basin was undertaken by Amoco in 1965. Drilling in the Jeanne d'Arc Basin and environs began in 1971 and, after a hiatus from 1975 to 1978, drilling activity peaked in 1984. A total of 67 wells have been drilled, and over 150 000 km of seismic data have been recorded in the study area to the end of 1989. In Part I of the report, 15 hydrocarbon exploration plays are defined by area and type of trap and by the lithostratigraphic horizon providing the reservoir facies. In Part II, seismic and well data for each play are used as input data in statistical estimations of the total and remaining hydrocarbon potential of the Jeanne d'Arc Basin and environs.

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A unique occurrence of Mesozoic breccia cut by lamprophyric-carbonatite dikelets, near Makkovik, Labrador is interpreted to relate to the opening of the Labrador Sea. The breccia has been dated by nannofossils; vitrinite reflectance studies show that some time during or after deposition the rock was heated to at least 170 °C. It is suggested that shallow seas extended westward beyond the present Labrador Marginal Trough during early Jurassic time and that the period of late alkaline igneous activity is related to the rifting between Greenland and Labrador that commenced about the middle of the Mesozoic Era.