CNSOPB staff continue to follow the directives from the provincial and federal governments and the Chief Medical Officer to work remotely at home in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. We are fully operational and remain committed to fulfilling our mandate.
Decommissioning and abandonment activities continue in the Canada-Nova Scotia offshore area.
This Order supports the important public health measures put in place by Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and provides additional direction with respect to our regulatory requirements under the Accord Acts.
Order Respecting Essential Employees
For more information on COVID-19, please visit the following links:
We recognize that COVID-19 continues to be a rapidly evolving situation. We are in daily contact with the provincial and federal governments and operators to understand and determine the implications for work in the Canada-Nova Scotia offshore area. Key changes to offshore operations will be posted on our website and Twitter.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, we want to assure everyone that the health and safety of our employees and the offshore work force is and will remain our top priority while we continue our regulatory oversight of operators offshore. We have activated the following measures:
New Year. New Website.
Over the past couple of years, we have met with Indigenous communities and stakeholders to better understand how we can continue to build trust and confidence with the public that we serve. In these conversations, we heard:
BP Canada Energy Group ULC (BP Canada) has notified the CNSOPB that it will forfeit its $1 million drilling deposit paid in 2019 and pay a further drilling deposit of $2 million to extend Period 1 for an additional year.
This additional extension period will expire on January 14, 2021.
What does this mean moving forward?
The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) and Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) jointly revised the Incident Reporting and Investigation Guidelines (previously released June 2009 and November 2012).
With the addition of Part III.1 to both the federal and provincial Accord Acts in December 2014, the introduction of the transitional regulations in January 2015 and feedback from stakeholders on the current version, the decision was made to update this Guideline.
The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB), in conjunction with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Department of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), have reviewed Shell Canada Limited’s (Shell) decision to leave the riser and lower marine riser package in place on the seafloor.
Based on the information presented in the Shell documentation:
The Canada Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board will be delaying its annual Call for Bids in order to complete a more comprehensive geoscientific assessment of the 2017 Call for Bids Forecast Area.
The geoscientific assessment of the 2017 Call for Bids Forecast Area will be completed in the next couple of months. CNSOPB anticipates the Call for Bids will be issued in the Summer of 2017.
Contact Information:
Stacy O’Rourke
sorourke@cnsopb.ns.ca
902-410-6402
