BP Canada is putting its Nova Scotia exploration drilling activity on the back burner until 2018, as it waits out the economic slump the entire industry has been enduring.
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Map of BP's Scotian basin exploration drilling project, from Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. |
In a statement released earlier this week, BP Canada said that drilling operations will begin in Q2 2018, nearly a year delay, from its originally planned schedule of Q3 2017.
The delay, the company said, will help finalize the locations of the exploration wells by the end of this year.
"The additional time will also support the preparation of a robust environmental assessment and mitigation plan as well as thorough drilling, incident prevention and response plans," BP said. "Also, the current economic environment has placed pressure on capital budgets and a delay to a summer 2018 drilling season will support cost efficiency efforts."
BP Canada’s exploration drilling program is located approximately 230-370km off the southeast coast of Nova Scotia, consisting of up to seven exploration wells within exploration licenses 2431, 2432, 2433, and 2434 in the Scotian basin.
At a total acreage of some 14,100sq km, the four licenses combined are equal in size to 600 Gulf of Mexico outer continental shelf blocks, according to partner Hess.
BP plans to submit its environmental impact statement to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency next month.
The program is expected to take place over a three-year period, now starting in 2018, and is pending required approvals.
Specific drilling locations will be determined using seismic data gathered as part of BP’s Tangier 3D seismic exploration survey conducted in 2014 by Schlumberger’s WesternGeco.
BP Canada is the operator of the exploration licenses with 40% stake. Partners include Hess Canada (40%), and Woodside Petroleum (20%).
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