INDUSTRY ACTIVITY
In the north, activity over recent years has been low, and no exploratory wells were drilled between 1991 and 1997. Now there is growing industry interest and activity driven by new rights issuance, a generous profit sensitive royalty regime, the advent of cost reducing technology and aboriginal acceptance of development. Norman Wells (oil) and Pointed Mountain (gas) are the only two producing fields in the NWT, but development is underway at Ikhil (gas) in the Mackenzie Delta and Fort Liard (gas) in the southern NWT.
Exploratory drilling for oil and gas off the east coast of Canada has been very cyclical in nature and has been at a low level in the recent past. There are, however, indications that exploratory activity will increase rapidly in the near future. Recent land sales (Call for Bids) in both Newfoundland and Nova Scotia have been quite successful. Exploration drilling returned to the east coast for the first time since 1991 with the drilling in summer of 1996 of a well off the west coast of Newfoundland. Cohasset and Hibernia are both producing oil off the east coast. The Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP) is expected to start producing gas at the end of 1999, and Terra Nova is expected to commence oil production at the end of 2000.
Links
Detailed overviews of recent activity related to rights issuance, exploration and development can be found at the following websites: