The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) has issued its Call for Bids NS17-1 for exploration licenses consisting of three parcels in the Sydney Basin, east of Cape Breton Island.
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The CNSOPB completed a geoscientific interpretation that indicates the parcels have potential for both oil and gas. To date, only two wells have been drilled in the offshore portion of the Sydney Basin; both wells encountered gas in shallow sandstone formations. The parcels are located in 50m to 450m water depth.
“Active oil seeps are present onshore Cape Breton, which provides further evidence of the region’s hydrocarbon potential,” CNSOPB said in a 24 July press statement. “The primary target formations in the Sydney Basin are analogous to the producing zones in the Stoney Creek oil field and McCully gas field onshore New Brunswick. These target formations have not yet been penetrated by any of the wells drilled in the Sydney Basin.”
Bids must be received by 14 December 2017 before 4:00 p.m. Atlantic Time. Any successful bidders will be awarded exploration licenses subject to federal and provincial Ministerial approval.
The NS16-1 Call for Bids issued last year by CNSOPB – an independent joint agency of the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia responsible for the regulation of petroleum activities and resources offshore Nova Scotia – failed to attract bidders. In that Call for Bids, CNSOPB offered acreage that included parcels in the shallow waters offshore the Scotian Shelf, south of Sable Island.
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