Partners Husky Energy and BP have been awarded new acreage in the Jeanne d’Arc region offshore Eastern Newfoundland.
Namely, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) announced the results of Call for Bids NL17-CFB01 on November 8 according to which the call for bids consisted of three parcels with a total of 784,330 acres. The call for bids was issued in early April .
The sole criterion for selecting a winning bid was the total amount of money the bidder committed to spending on exploration of the parcel during Period I, which is the first period of a nine-year license. The minimum bid for the offered parcels was $10 million in work commitments.
The organization said on Wednesday that a successful bid was received for the 300,116-acre Parcel 1 from Husky Oil Operations Limited, a Husky Energy subsidiary, (50%) and BP’s Canadian entity, BP Canada Energy Group ULC, (50%) for $15,098,888 in work commitments.
C-NLOPB added that there were no bids for Parcels 2 and 3.
Subject to the bidder satisfying the requirements specified in the call for bids and upon receiving Ministerial approvals, the board will issue the new exploration license in January 2018.
It is worth noting that the parcels were included in the 2014 Eastern Newfoundland Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) which examined the environmental effects associated with a plan, program or policy proposal and allows for the incorporation of environmental considerations at the earliest stages of program planning.
Also, the last call, named NL16-CFB01, was for thirteen parcels in the Eastern Newfoundland region, and three parcels in the Jeanne d’Arc region. It was announced in April last year with the results of the call announced in November 2016 .