BP Gains Exploration Foothold Offshore Nova Scotia

NS12-1 Parcels canada nova scotia offshore

The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) announced late last week that BP and Shell were the successful bidders for exploration licenses offshore Nova Scotia. These blocks are located approximately 300 kilometres off the Nova Scotia coast, southeast of Halifax, in water depths ranging from 100 to over 3000 metres.
Shell Canada Limited and BP Exploration Operating Company gained licenses to explore 4 parcels each with work expenditure bids of $31,853,248.00 and $1,049,999,999.00 respectively.

“The Board will proceed with issuing Exploration Licences effective January 15, 2013 for these eight parcels, pending final Ministerial approval by both the Federal and Provincial governments,” says Stuart Pinks, CNSOPB Chief Executive Officer.

The Work Expenditure Bid represents the amount of money the bidder intends to spend exploring the land parcels during the initial six-year period of a nine-year Exploration Licence. Successful bidders are required to post a deposit of 25 per cent of the amount of the bid to demonstrate their intention to conduct the work. The following outlines the winning Work Expenditure Bids for each parcel:

Mike Daly, BP Executive Vice President of Exploration said: “This award gives us access to a significant piece of geology, one of the most promising new deepwater areas to be licensed in recent years. Exploration is a key driver of future growth for BP, and access to prospective new acreage such as this is essential. This entry to Nova Scotia’s offshore plays to our strengths in the deepwater and sub-salt.”

“We are pleased about the quality and materiality of our exploration prospects. In addition to deepening in our existing core areas, our drilling programme is expected to test 15 completely new plays between 2012 and 2015,” said Daly.

In January 2012, Shell won exploration licenses for NS11-1 which at the time were the largest bids ever received for acreage off Canada’s eastern coast.