Regulator eases offshore N.S. petroleum exploration

Regulator eases offshore N.S. petroleum exploration

A Nova Scotia-federal regulator is making it easier for companies to explore for petroleum off the province’s coast.

The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board will introduce more flexible terms and conditions for new exploration licences, chairwoman Diana Dalton said Thursday.

“We believe the changes we’ve announced today will get explorers exploring at minimal cost and provide valuable geoscience information on the offshore,” she said in a release.

The board will introduce a second kind of exploration licence with a term of two or three years and with a lower cost of entry. The new licence will allow oil and gas companies to do preliminary work without up-front, long-term commitments, the board said in a release.

Dalton also said that the board will evaluate data on areas thought to have potential for oil and gas, package the information and then call for competitive bids to explore the areas.

“We want the offshore of Nova Scotia to be regarded as a part of the global industry, not apart from it,” she said.

In August last year, EnCana Corp. announced a scaled-back version of its original Deep Panuke natural gas project, which falls under the board’s jurisdiction.

The Calgary-based company shelved development of the gas field, about 250 kilometres southeast of Halifax, in 2003 because it was too costly to proceed at the time.

The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board is a joint agency of the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia.

Information from: ca.news.yahoo.com

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