The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) has issued Call for Bids NS18-3, which includes two industry-nominated parcels.
The NS18-3 parcels are located in shallow water, with maximum water depths up to 100 meters, on the Scotian Shelf, within the Sable Subbasin, where 23 significant discoveries have been made to date. The parcels border four production licences of ExxonMobil’s Sable Offshore Energy Project which has produced over 2 Trillion cubic feet of gas and are directly adjacent to 10 Significant Discoveries containing an estimated 1.3 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 15 million barrels of recoverable oil. A number of undrilled exploration prospects have been identified on both parcels, including the Marmora discovery with proven gas trapped in a sandstone reservoir.
Bids must be received by May 8, 2019 before 4 p.m. Atlantic Time. Successful bidder(s) may be awarded exploration licences (ELs), subject to the federal and provincial ministerial review and approval process set out in legislation.
Strategic and project-specific environmental assessments (EA) have been conducted previously within the general area addressing exploration, development/production, and decommissioning type activities. Should ELs be issued, a project-specific EA would then need to be completed ahead of the CNSOPB’s consideration of any subsequent application by an operator to carry out exploration activity on the ELs. The EA would evaluate potential environmental effects specific to a proposed project, and determine the precise mitigation measures that would need to be implemented, should the CNSOPB ultimately grant an authorization to an operator to proceed with offshore activity.