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This geospatial data depicts potential future development areas recommended by the Committee for the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Nova Scotia. These areas were identified as an interim product during the Regional Assessment process. They do not reflect official offshore wind licencing or development areas. The Committee for the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Nova Scotia (Committee) is providing federal and provincial Ministers with information, knowledge, and analysis regarding future offshore wind development (OSW). Their work is intended to inform and improve future planning, licencing, permitting, and impact assessment processes. The Committee is tasked to complete its Regional Assessment Report by January 2025. As part of the terms of the amended agreement set out by the Governments of Canada and Nova Scotia, the Committee submitted an interim report to Ministers on March 22, 2024. This report included the preliminary identification of recommended areas for potential future offshore wind. Based on work completed to date, the Committee has identified areas where offshore wind development is technically feasible (based on available information) and will have the least impact within other offshore users. These areas are preliminary and will be refined throughout the remainder of the Regional Assessment. The offshore wind areas identified by the Committee do not reflect official offshore wind licencing areas. The Committee is providing these areas to Ministers for their consideration, as the offshore wind regulatory process is being established.
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This geospatial data depicts the Draft Offshore Wind Licencing Areas (Draft Areas) recommended by the Committee for the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Newfoundland and Labrador (Committee).* Based on work completed to date, the Committee has found the Draft Areas are where offshore wind development would have the least impact within the Regional Assessment Focus Area. Identifying Areas: Section 6 of the Draft Regional Assessment Report (see Data Resources below) includes details on how the Draft Areas were identified. They are the result of the constraints analysis summarized below, with very little modification to area boundaries. The Committee successively removed areas from the Regional Assessment Focus Area (published on Open Government by the Impact Assessment Agency on December 1, 2023). Constraints analysis steps included: • Step 1: Creating Coastal Buffers. • Step 2: Removing Marine Critical Habitat. • Step 3: Removing Marine Protected Areas. • Step 4: Removing Marine Traffic Routes. • Step 5: Removing Areas with High Vessel Traffic. • Step 6: Removing the South Coast Fjords NMCA Study Area. • Step 7: Removing Areas around National Parks & World Heritage Sites. • Step 8: Removing High Density Fishing Areas. • Step 9: Removing Community-based Coastal Resources. An Iterative Process: Identifying offshore wind licencing areas is an iterative process. On March 22, 2024, the Committee submitted its Interim Report to Ministers. This report included a preliminary map of recommended areas for offshore wind development licencing. The preliminary areas were updated based on engagement outcomes, additional data and analysis submitted to the Committee by Regional Assessment participants, and additional research and analysis completed by the Committee between March and October 2024. On October 1, 2024, the Committee’s Draft Report, including updated offshore wind areas, was published for a public comment period. The Draft Areas supersede the Preliminary Offshore Wind Licencing Areas. The Draft Areas are also subject to change. The Committee will submit its Final Report and Initial Offshore Wind Licencing Areas for Consideration to Ministers on or before January 23, 2025. The Committee recommends that regulators consider the forthcoming Initial Offshore Wind Energy Licencing Areas, and the Committee’s report to Ministers, to help inform offshore wind development licencing areas in the region. Latest Update: The Committee’s Final Report and final version of Initial Offshore Wind Energy Licencing Areas for Consideration were submitted to Ministers on January 23, 2025. This completes the Committee’s mandate. Ministers may also choose to make the final versions of these areas available following the Regional Assessment. However, no changes have been made to the geospatial data representing the Draft Areas (published here). Please note the Committee updated the term “Initial Offshore Wind Energy Licencing Areas for Consideration” in the final iteration of their work to better communicate the areas it identified are not licencing areas but are a starting point to help inform the selection of licencing areas. Previous iterations of these areas were called Preliminary Offshore Wind Licencing Areas and Draft Offshore Wind Licencing Areas. *Regional Assessment Background: The federal Ministers of Environment and of Natural Resources, and the provincial Ministers of Industry, Energy and Technology, of Environment and Climate Change, and of Intergovernmental Affairs (Ministers) are signatory to the Regional Assessment Agreement. The goal of the Regional Assessment is to provide information to federal and provincial governments to help them plan for offshore wind development in Newfoundland and Labrador, and complete impact assessments of offshore wind projects. Federal and provincial Ministers appointed an independent committee, comprising five members of diverse backgrounds and expertise to conduct the assessment.
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This geospatial data depicts preliminary offshore wind licencing areas recommended by the Committee for the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Newfoundland and Labrador (Committee). These areas were identified as an interim product during the Regional Assessment process. The Committee is tasked to complete its Regional Assessment Report by January 2025. As part of the terms of amended agreement set out by the Governments of Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador, the Committee submitted an interim report to Ministers on March 22, 2024. This report included a preliminary map of recommended areas for offshore wind. Based on work completed to date, the Committee has found these areas are where offshore wind development is most likely feasible and will have the least impact within offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. These areas are preliminary and will be refined throughout the remainder of the Regional Assessment. Through the Regional Assessment process, the Committee is providing federal and provincial Ministers with information, knowledge, and analysis regarding future offshore wind development. Their work is intended to inform and improve future planning, licencing, and impact assessment processes. Any offshore wind areas identified by the Committee do not reflect official offshore wind licencing areas. The Committee is providing these areas to Ministers for their consideration, as the offshore wind regulatory process is being established.
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The dataset contains the digital boundaries for significant discovery licences, production licences, drilled wells, major pipelines and the jurisdictional boundary of the area administered by the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB), as well as the inactive Georges Bank permits formerly administered by the Canada Oil and Gas Lands Administration (COGLA). All production facilities have been removed and active projects were fully abandoned and decommissioned by November 2020. As of January 2022 there are no active exploration licences. A significant discovery licence (SDL) may be issued for lands within a declared significant discovery area under the Accord Acts. The term of a significant discovery licence is indefinite and was designed to maintain an explorer's rights during the period between first discovery and eventual production. Significant discovery licence interest representatives in 2021 include BP Canada Energy Company, ExxonMobil Canada Ltd., ExxonMobil Canada Properties, Ovintiv Canada ULC, and Shell Canada Limited. Most of the SDLs predate the CNSOEB; they were issued at various times from 1980 to 1986 by COGLA before the Offshore Board existed. On January 5, 1990, they were all rolled into CNSOEB’s governance. The only exception is SDL 2702 which was issued June 6, 2007. A production licence (PL) gives interest holders the right to produce petroleum in an area which is subject to a declared commercial discovery. In order to be declared a commercial discovery, an operator must demonstrate that the discovery contains reserves that will justify the investment of capital and effort to bring the discovery to production. A production licence has a term of 25 years but may be extended if commercial production is continuing or is likely to recommence. Production licence interest representatives in 2021 include ExxonMobil Canada Ltd. and Ovintiv Canada ULC. The PLs were effective on the following dates: • 2901, 2902: 1991-04-01 • 2903, 2904, 2905, 2906: 1999-07-06 • 2907: 2003-10-31 • 2908: 2004-11-25 • 2909, 2910, 2911: 2010-12-31 Inactive Georges Bank permit interest representatives include BP Canada Energy Company and Chevron Canada Ltd. Each production licence, significant discovery licence and inactive Georges Bank permit polygon is a mapped representation of the permit interest abstract. The offshore area is divided into grid areas and permit interest abstracts are defined by this land division. The land division system consists of grid areas, sections, and units – all referenced to the North American Datum of 1927 (NAD27). For more information on the Canada lands defined areas (Land Division), See: Canada oil and gas regulations land division (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/C.R.C.%2C_c._1518/page-1.html#h-525569 or https://www.cnsopb.ns.ca/resource-library/land-division-guideline). The area of a PL or SDL can be found in the permit interest abstract for that licence, available for download on the CNSOPB's website (https://www.cnsopb.ns.ca/sites/default/files/resource/interest_summary_table.pdf) . The directory of wells point dataset contains the surface locations for all wells drilled in Offshore Nova Scotia. The file includes well names, locations, spud dates, termination dates, rig table elevations, water depths, well total depth, well type (exploratory, delineation, production, or injector), well result, and current status. Original data for wells drilled prior to 1990 was collected and maintained by the Geological Survey of Canada and COGLA. Data are also available on the Basin database online (https://basin.gdr.nrcan.gc.ca/index_e.php). CNSOPB’s directory of wells was last updated January, 2020. Jurisdictional boundary point and lines datasets define the outer limit of the jurisdiction of the CNSOPB, as described in the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act - Schedule 1 (Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-7.8/page-1.html)), excluding the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) limit as described under Part VI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (https://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf?msclkid=5309c2b9cfc911ecb5bb107f67772ec1). The offshore gas pipeline polyline dataset contains locations of major pipelines in the CNSOPB's jurisdictional area, associated with petroleum production in offshore Nova Scotia. This file is considered to be approximate and is not an official record. Some pipeline coordinates are sourced from CAD documents (DXF), supplied by operators. Some were created using ArcMap, digitized from paper records. As of October 2021, all pipelines within this file have been fully flushed with sea water and abandoned. All shapefiles were transformed into the NAD83 datum using the NTv2 transformation.