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The offshore energy regulator has issued two exploration licences to a company that wants to extract gas from the ocean floor off Nova Scotia.
After closing a call for bids earlier this week, the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Energy Regulator announced the two successful bids Thursday morning.
The only selection criterion is the amount of money proposed to be spent on exploration efforts, the regulator said.
Inceptio Oil and Gas Limited bid more than $210 million in work expenditures across two parcels — just over $10 million for Parcel 8, which is in deepwater on the Scotian Slope, and just over $200 million for Parcel 9, which is in shallow water on the Scotian Shelf.
Parcel 9 is in the area where all historical oil and gas production has taken place, and it’s similar to a parcel Inceptio was after in 2023, according to the regulator.
Inceptio is led by CEO James Edens, a Nova Scotia native who has worked in oil and gas for more than three decades both domestically and, more recently, abroad. He relocated back to Nova Scotia last year.
Edens is also CEO of North Sea Natural Resources, which focuses on petroleum exploration in waters off the United Kingdom.
“With incident free operations, we shall find and develop Nova Scotia sourced gas for industrial use and power generation, and export cleaner fuel to our key allies,” he said in an email to CBC News.
The regulator would not say whether any other bids came in for parcels 8 and 9, and said no bids were received for the other 11 parcels that were on offer.
Receiving licences from the regulator is the first of several steps that must be taken before any work can begin. The federal and provincial governments have to review and approve the regulator’s decision, which is a step that Inceptio did not clear three years ago.
The regulator gave the company a licence in 2023, but the two levels of government jointly vetoed the decision, citing a commitment to advancing renewable energy. At the time, Nova Scotia and Ottawa were in the midst of establishing a new regulatory regime for offshore energy to accommodate wind projects.
In 2023, Inceptio committed to spend $1.5 million on exploration activities.
This is the first call for bids since then, and the first since the Houston government turned its focus to natural resource development.
Premier Tim Houston issued a statement Thursday celebrating the successful bids. He said they reflect his government’s work to restore confidence in the industry.
“Nova Scotia is back in the offshore oil and gas business,” he said. “And this is not just talk. It is real investment in Nova Scotia’s offshore.”
Premier Tim Houston takes questions from reporters at Province House in this file photo. On Thursday, the premier celebrated the issuance of two exploration licences for offshore petroleum. (Jeorge Sadi/CBC)
Houston said Edens’s interest in Nova Scotia is an endorsement of the province.
“Mr. Edens is a proven executive in the global oil and gas industry,” the premier said. “When someone with that level of experience and access to capital chooses Nova Scotia, the world notices.”
Houston highlighted the potential revenues for the province, which he said would go to “doctors and healthcare, teachers and schools, roads, rinks and communities.”
Nova Scotia had an active offshore petroleum industry that started in the early 1990s. The Sable Offshore Energy Project by ExxonMobil and Deep Panuke run by Encana both shuttered in 2018 following several years of declining production.
“That was not the peak,” Houston said. “It was a preview.”
If the province and Ottawa approve the licences, Inceptio will then have to get environmental approval and, following that, submit another application for approval by the offshore energy regulator.
The regulator said it will ensure any activity is done safely and in an environmentally responsible manner.
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