Onshore Oil & Natural Gas - Current Activity
Onshore oil & gas exploration in Nova Scotia dates back to the 1800s, with oil wells drilled in Cape Breton.
Now, the exploration focus has switched, with gas, shale gas and coalbed methane taking the lead.
There are currently seven conventional exploration agreements plus one coalbed methane exploration agreement held by industry.
The province also has two production agreements for coalbed methane and one production lease for shale gas.
Onshore Exploration News
As of September 2011, St. Brendan's Exploration Ltd. is the newest player in the province's onshore oil and gas industry, obtaining three exploration agreements for conventional rights in Cumberland, Colchester and Pictou Counties. This is a result of a call for bids that closed in March 2011. The three onshore lease agreements cover approximately 335,500 hectares and exclude protected and coastal areas.
The agreements have a combined value of $10.4 million in exploration spending over the three years. The agreements are for three years, with two options for renewal for a potential total of nine years.
Current Exploration Activity
Elmworth Energy, the Canadian subsidiary of Triangle Petroleum Corporation, has a production lease representing the province's first onshore shale gas development and will cover a 10-year period.
Forent Energy holds one onshore exploration agreement and just completed an airborne gravity gradiometry survey over their lands in the Shubenacadie basin area. They now have approval to conduct a three-well exploratory drill program. It does not include hydraulic fracturing.
PetroWorth Resources Inc. holds their conventional exploration agreement in Western Cape Breton Basin and have been approved by the province to drill an exploration well.
East Coast Energy Inc. holds the rights of a coal gas production agreement in the Stellarton area; and Donkin Tenements Inc. also has a coal gas agreement in the Sydney Basin area of Cape Breton.
Eastrock Resources Limited holds two conventional exploration agreements in the province in Cumberland County area and has applied to drill a well for 2011.
Stealth Ventures Ltd. holds the rights to explore coalbed methane in the Springhill area with their production agreement.