Nova Scotia’s Premier aims to revive province’s oil and gas activity

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston

Interview with Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston 

Nova Scotia’s oil and gas activity has certainly had its up and downs. After a peak period from the late 1990s to about 2015, the province’s offshore sector declined sharply and entered a 10-year period of no activity that has just begun to reverse itself. Buoyed by changes in regulatory attitude on Canada’s federal level, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is leading the charge to revitalize the province’s oil and gas development. Accordingly, Premier Houston visited the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) during May 4-7 to tout Nova Scotia’s oil and gas potential.

Offshore petroleum exploration began in 1959 when Mobil Oil Canada was issued the province's first exploration licenses for the Sable Island region, Fig. 1. In 1967, the first offshore well was drilled. Several discoveries were made, including gas at Onondaga (1969) and oil/gas at West Sable (1971).  

Discovered in 1973, Mobil-operated Cohasset-Panuke went online in 1992 as Canada’s first offshore oil production. It produced light oil until it was decommissioned in 1999. Within the Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP), the discovery of significant gas at the Venture structure in 1979 sparked a second exploration cycle. The Mobil/ExxonMobil-led Sable project saw first gas delivered to markets in late 1999. This project, for a time, made Nova Scotia a player in North American energy supply. 

Fig. 1. The Sable Offshore Energy Project was a major natural gas and condensate development located about 200 km (124 mi) off the coast of Nova Scotia, near Sable Island. Image: Government of Nova Scotia.

To connect offshore gas to the mainland grid, the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline was built and completed in 1999. This 684-mi mainline transported gas from Goldboro, Nova Scotia, through New Brunswick to the northeastern U.S. In addition, Deep Panuke gas field was discovered in 1998. The development project (managed by Encana) eventually came online in 2013, Fig. 2.   

Despite over $1 billion invested in exploration between 1998 and 2008, no new major discoveries were made, and existing fields began to decline. Deep Panuke ceased production in 2018, and SOEP ended operations the same year. All offshore platforms were then decommissioned.

During the nearly 10-year (2015-2025) tenure of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Nova Scotia’s offshore sector was in an unfavorable regulatory “wilderness.” But with the ascension of current Prime Minister Mark Carney, Premier Houston has taken advantage of the more pragmatic federal attitude to tout Nova Scotia’s offshore potential, as well as hold an initial licensing round in April 2026.

Fig. 2. Deep Panuke gas field was discovered in 1998, went onstream in 2013 and ceased production in 2018. Image: Government of Nova Scotia.

Onshore status. Nova Scotia is aggressively pushing to revitalize its onshore natural gas sector. In November 2014, the Nova Scotia government had enacted a permanent ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing for onshore shale gas development. In 2025, legislators ended the decade-long moratorium on fracing.   

Accordingly, Premier Houston authorized Dalhousie University to administer a $30-million government program to evaluate onshore gas development. During the Premier’s OTC visit, Dalhousie University confirmed that it forwarded to the province's Energy Department its analysis of seven proponents that submitted expressions of interest to drill. Fresh from visiting OTC, Premier Houston on May 13 said he thinks a decision on applicant approvals is “pretty imminent.” He explained further, “I'm confident that at least one and maybe as many as three or four might proceed to that stage.” 

During his visit to OTC, Premier Houston sat down with World Oil Editor-in-Chief Kurt Abraham (Fig. 3) to discuss the state of Nova Scotia’s oil and gas efforts and his plans for the sector’s future.

World Oil (WO): Why don’t we begin by talking about some of the attributes that you think Nova Scotia brings to the offshore table.

Fig. 3. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston (right) visited with World Oil Editor-in-Chief Kurt Abraham (right) during OTC in Houston. Image: World Oil.

Premier Tim Houston (TH): Thanks, it's good to be here at OTC. It's my first time here. Between this event and CERAWeek in March, it shows you how big the global industry is and how competitive it is. These are massive glimpses into the various sides of the industry. And it's definitely an industry that Nova Scotia has pretty significant ambitions in. The Prime Minister of Canada has talked about the country as an energy superpower, and we think Nova Scotia can be a big part of that and maybe an energy superpower in our own right in many ways. So, am happy to talk about the opportunities that we have in offshore oil and gas, also onshore gas, offshore winds, geothermal, tidal, all these things. But certainly, the oil and gas opportunities that we see are very significant, and we're just making sure that people are aware of them.   

WO: I think it's a fair statement to say that Nova Scotia has come out of an energy wilderness over the last 10 years. There's been a significant change in thinking, both on the provincial and the federal level. So, maybe you can take us back to when you first felt like you were going to be able to change the tempo and direction of provincial energy policy.  

TH: There's no question we're coming out of a hibernation, for sure. As ambitious as the current Prime Minister, Mark Carney is, we had the exact opposite for 10 years. I mean, it's no secret that former Prime Minister Trudeau and his government were not fans of oil and gas, and in fact, not fans of a lot of things in natural resources. Canada, as a country, had virtually no major projects approved over a 10-year period.  

Now, one of your readers may Google that and find some project somewhere and say, “well that was a project, and it was major as far as I'm concerned.” But the reality is that there was not a lot happening in Canada, and there certainly wasn't a lot happening in Nova Scotia. In fact, the Premier before me had banned onshore gas, including fracing, and certainly had moratoriums against some other things. So, there was a lot against us. We were handcuffed in many respects. Those are off now.   

Fig. 4. Nova Scotia’s first bidding round in the reconstituted oil and gas effort saw awards take place in April 2026. Two successful bids (colored green in the map) were announced, totaling over C$210 million (US$152.7 million). Map: Government of Nova Scotia.

One of the first things I did as Premier was lift the fracing ban and lift some of the moratoriums and say, “we're going to have adult discussions about what's possible, what we could do—what we could do safely and sustainably.” We just came out of a pretty significant month for our province and for our country, really. But April, for Nova Scotia, we closed the offshore oil and gas bidding round on April 28th, and I'm really pleased with the bids we did get, hundreds of millions of dollars of commitment to spend in our offshore oil and gas, Fig. 4. It's really important, a really big step for us.  

And also in April, what we had done as a provincial government for the onshore gas—and I can talk about some of the potential there as well—we took $30 million of taxpayer money and worked with Dalhousie, which is a respected university in Nova Scotia, to set up an onshore research and drilling incentive program. The first application round for that program closed in mid-April. We have applicants, we have interests. Thus, between the interest in onshore gas exploration development and in offshore oil and gas, there were two significant moments in April. And I'm pleased with the way they turned out.  

Also, to signify how serious we are about developing the energy sector in Nova Scotia, while I am Premier, I did become the Energy Minister, as well. So, April had the potential to be a pretty rough month for the Energy Minister slash Premier of Nova Scotia. If we wouldn't have had interest in the onshore, if we didn't have interest in the offshore, it would have been a rough month. But that's not the case. I'm really excited about what happened in terms of the bids and the interest we received, and it's a signal to me to keep going.  

WO: You’ve talked about Nova Scotia’s oil and gas potential in sets of different numbers, so maybe we can go through some of that in greater detail. I know that you had a very interesting number for the onshore potential, and certainly the numbers look good for the offshore.   

TH:  [00:05:41] Yes, the onshore gas is interesting, because we use gas in Nova Scotia, and we import it all. It's all imported. It actually comes through an Enbridge pipeline that exists. That pipeline was initially built to move gas from the offshore of Nova Scotia into New England, but it was also first to bring gas to us. I know that pipeline is only at 50% capacity right now. I also know that they're anxious to use it for its original purpose.   

But everything's imported right now, and we believe that there's—probable, proven, whatever—about 7 Tcf of gas onshore in Nova Scotia. Now imagine that's what we have underfoot, and we're importing everything we use. It's so sad. But then, in terms of what could be there, it could be over 30 Tcf, and that's only in a couple basins. There could be seven basins, but only two of them have been looked at. And so, those are the numbers from just those two. Obviously, there's massive potential onshore.   

And, in the offshore, we're really excited about what's possible there. Just for order of magnitude, the size of the area that I'd be talking about in the Nova Scotian offshore is about two-thirds the size of the U.S. Gulf. And it really hasn't been explored to date. I mean, there's been a couple hundred wells drilled off Nova Scotia. Compare that to the U.S. Gulf, where there's tens of thousands of wells, it could be over 80,000. So, there's a lot of upside potential offshore Nova Scotia.   

Considering just what we already expect in that offshore, 149 Tcf of gas and over 40 Bbbl of oil, this is a lot of potential. And that's with not very much exploration. Our department's done a lot of work on different seismic and seep tests and things like that. We have a fully sophisticated data room that we can walk people through on what we see and what we know for onshore and offshore. But just a fraction of either the onshore numbers or the offshore numbers would create a really relevant, important new industry in Nova Scotia, and it would be important for Canada. So, we're excited about what's possible there.  

WO: How has the industry reaction been, so far, with regard to these plans?   

TH: It's because of the above-ground risk (regulatory) that has existed in Canada for so long, and also Nova Scotia tripped over their own feet enough times, that people have been cautious. The above-ground risks were a significant factor for a lot of people, and even over the last few months, when I would travel as Premier and meet with companies one-on-one or even here or OTC, I would ask people, “are you thinking about Nova Scotia.” 

And most often, the answer was, “I haven't thought of Nova Scotia in 10 or 15 years.” It was not on their radars. And I would just say, “I want you to think about Nova Scotia. I want to you to come to the data room. I want you to think about the opportunities that are there.”   

Fig. 5. A jackup rig traverses Halifax’s harbor area, some years back. Given the oil and gas prospects and infrastructure of Nova Scotia, this scene could become somewhat commonplace again. Image: Government of Nova Scotia.

So, the fact that we did get bids on the offshore and the fact that we got applications on the onshore, I am taking that as a signal that the work we're doing to show people that we're doing everything we can to mitigate the above-ground risk is succeeding. The political will is there. The environment has a lot of things lining up for us. I think the needle is moving, and people like that in one way or another, the resource is there. So, now we're gaining the confidence that we, as a government, are serious. I would say we're moving in the right direction in terms of rebuilding confidence and trust, but there is still work to be done.  

WO: Of course, the other benefit or asset that you have is the existing infrastructure in terms of service companies and their capabilities that have built up in East Canada for a number of years.  

TH: I think we have a couple of things that are important. We do have pretty good infrastructure in terms of ports and the pipeline I mentioned and related opportunities, Fig. 5. We also have, in terms of workforce, a lot of Nova Scotians, who work in oil and gas. They just haven't been doing it in Nova Scotia. So, there's a lot expertise through Nova Scotians, who want to come back and help us build this industry. Those are good things. I think the regulatory structure we have, the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Energy Regulator, is a respected, sophisticated regulatory system with stability. That's important. I think a lot of factors are lining up. There will be significant investment in the oil and gas sector in Nova Scotia over the next 5, 10, 15 years, and there's a lot to build on.  

TIM HOUSTON is Nova Scotia’s 30th Premier. He also serves as provincial Minister of Energy and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Trade. He was sworn in as Premier of Nova Scotia on August 31, 2021, and started his second term in office in December 2024. Premier Houston obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Saint Mary’s University and then earned his Chartered Accountant designation in Halifax. After graduation, he and his wife, Carol, moved to Bermuda, where he worked with both Deloitte and the reinsurance industry. In 2007, knowing that they wanted to raise their two children closer to their extended family, Premier Houston and his wife returned to the Nova Scotia area, where they have lived since. On Nov. 2, 2020, he was awarded his profession’s highest mark of distinction, the Fellow (FCPA) designation, by Chartered Professional Accountants of Nova Scotia. He successfully sought the Pictou East PC nomination in 2012 and was first elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in the 2013 provincial election. He was re-elected in 2017, 2021, and again in November 2024. In 2018, Premier Houston was elected Leader of the PC Party of Nova Scotia.