Hydrocarbon resource assessment of Nares Strait and central Ellesmere Island, Nunavut

GIS compilation of data used to perform the stacked cumulative chance of success (resource potential map) in Open file 9163. Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has been tasked, under the Marine Conservation Targets (MCT) initiative announced in Budget 2016, with evaluating the petroleum resource potential for areas identified for possible protection as part of the Government of Canada's commitment to conserve 10% of its marine areas by 2020. As part of this initiative, NRCan's Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) conducted a broad regional study of the petroleum potential over the majority of the Magdalen Basin, which is the principal geological basin in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. The GSC resource assessment is visually represented by a qualitative petroleum potential map. Disclaimer: A simplified colored version of the map is displayed on the Web Mapping Service (WMS). The correct version is available for download through the Federal Geospatial Platform (FGP) and GEOSCAN.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field	Value
Last Updated	April 17, 2026, 17:28 (UTC)
Created	April 17, 2026, 17:28 (UTC)
contact_email	nrcan.gsc-geosciencedata-donneesgeoscience-cgc.rncan@canada.ca
contact_person	{"fr": "Gouvernement du Canada; Ressources naturelles Canada; Commission géologique du Canada,nrcan.gsc-geosciencedata-donneesgeoscience-cgc.rncan@canada.ca", "en": "Government of Canada; Natural Resources Canada; Geological Survey of Canada,nrcan.gsc-geosciencedata-donneesgeoscience-cgc.rncan@canada.ca"}
criticality_level	[]
data_dictionary	Proj4,nrcan.lms.gsc.proj:+proj=lcc +lat_1=70 +lat_2=79 +lat_0=40 +lon_0=-103 +x_0=2000000 +y_0=0 +datum=NAD83 +units=m,1
geographic_scope	[]
open_canada_collection	fgp
open_canada_date_published	2024-02-27 00:00:00
open_canada_keywords	{"fr": ["aire de protection marine", "évaluation des ressources", "géologie pétrolière", "hydrocarbure", "Nunavut", "Géologie"], "en": ["marine protected area", "resource assessment", "petroleum geology", "hydrocarbon", "Nunavut", "Geology"]}
open_canada_subject	["form_descriptors", "nature_and_environment", "science_and_technology"]
sensitivity_level	unrestricted
title_fr	Évaluation des ressources en hydrocarbures du détroit de Nares et du centre de l'île d'Ellesmere, au Nunavut
update_frequency	as_needed