NOVA SCOTIA CANADA: THE NEXT PLAY

Nova Scotia’s moves: Call for Bids, geoscience advances and spreading the word

December 2007 represents a turning point for the offshore Nova Scotia land bids process. The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board’s (CNSOPB) new strategic approach begins with a new bid option for exploration companies. In the first Call for Bids since 2003, the CNSOPB is appraising and evaluating data on areas thought to have potential for oil and gas and will be providing information packages during this next Call for Bids process.

The province’s offshore players will also continue the cooperative push to develop more geoscience information, much of which will be available online. Presenting and promoting Nova Scotia’s exploration initiatives thorough an enhanced marketing effort will see experts attend forums, conferences, and trade shows around the world and at home.

This past October, promotion efforts were targeted in Nova Scotia before traveling to Morocco. Nova Scotia’s annual CORE conference “New Ideas, New Momentum” (www.coreconference.com) took place from October 2-5 in Halifax. This year’s industry event also offered the Nova Scotia Offshore Basin Forum 2007 briefing (www.offshoreenergyresearch.ca).

The Province of Nova Scotia, the CNSOPB, local consultants and researchers, and industry representatives will participate in the Eastern Canada Session in the first MAPG International Convention, Conference and Exhibition in Marrakech, Morocco, Oct. 28-31, 2007 (www.mapg.org/onhym.png). The intention is to target the international geological community including the oil industry, entrepreneurs and academia worldwide who may not be familiar with this area.

Nova Scotia papers presented on important geoscience-orientated topics included:

• Laurentian Basin-A strike slip / extensional conjugate depocentre to the Moroccan margin
• Review of Nova Scotia’s deepwater drilling and its effect on the CNSOPB 2002 resource assessment
• Petroleum systems of the Scotian Basin and Its implications of finding oil and gas within deepwater Sable and Shelburne Sub-basins, offshore Nova Scotia
• The Penobscot prospect offshore Nova Scotia: A new look at an old opportunity.

In November 2008, Nova Scotia’s key oil and gas players will be in Greece for the AAPG and AAPG European Region’s “Challenge Our Myths” Energy Conference & Exhibition, November 18-21, www.aapg.org/athens/.

The Province of Nova Scotia will also return to Houston to the NAPE conference www.napeexpo.com on February 7 and 8, 2008. Nova Scotia will present an overview of Nova Scotia’s petroleum activities and opportunities, as well as have a booth for the Exchange.

Department of Energy Director Sandy MacMullin says attending NAPE is very important to the province. “The attendees tend to be decision makers, therefore business gets done-people sell deals and buy deals and raise money. NAPE is successful because NAPE is the oil and gas business in action.”

The third East Coast Session and topical luncheon is being organized for the Offshore Technology Conference, to be held from May 5-8th, 2008 in Houston, Texas, www.otcnet.org/2008. Nova Scotia, along with OTANS, will be representing Nova Scotia businesses, with a double-tiered booth with cafe to showcase Nova Scotia oil and gas industry along with its supply and services capabilities.

The East Coast session will comprise seven papers, one of which will provide an overview of Atlantic Canada while the other six will showcase new technology developed in various aspects of the oil and gas industry on the East Coast of Canada. Topics include mitigation of ice risk to subsea infrastructure, evacuation training using immersive simulators, compressed air breathing apparatus for helicopter evacuation, produced water discharge monitoring, using MRI to measure capillary pressure, small field development, and subsea tieback technologies.

The topical luncheon speaker is scheduled to be David Kopperson, Vice-President, East Coast Operations for Encana, who will discuss Nova Scotia’s second offshore natural gas development project, Deep Panuke.

In August 2008, scientific researchers and industry geoscientists from both sides of the Atlantic will attend “The Central Atlantic Conjugate Margin Conference-Halifax 2008 at Halifax’s Dalhousie University. This international conference will focus on discussing common findings from current and past hydrocarbon exploration, combined with the latest concepts and interpretations on basin evolution, petroleum systems and productive fields, says Professor Grant Wach of Dalhousie University, conference co-chair.

The NSORGI’s initial results should be available for the three-day conference, which is intended to enable researchers and industry personnel to share ideas, results and data about Nova Scotia basins. This should improve understanding their formation, evolution and petroleum systems, and elevate hydrocarbon exploration success on both sides of the Atlantic. For more information visit www.conjugatemargins.com.