To honour our 30th anniversary, we will be posting articles throughout 2020 that celebrate our various milestones and achievements. This article is part of our 30th anniversary series.
The Early Days
In 1990, the federal Canada Oil and Gas Lands Administration and the Nova Scotia Department of Mines and Energy transferred their offshore management responsibilities to the newly created Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB).
The early days at the CNSOPB were led by Fred V. Weir, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, who was supported by 15 employees in Halifax, in the very same building we maintain our main office today.
A Year of Firsts
- One of our first tasks was to review an authorization application for the Cohasset Panuke project, which would go on to become Canada’s first offshore oil project and produce 44.5 million barrels of oil
- On February 14, 1990, we issued our first Call for Bids, which included a parcel containing 24,948 hectares
- We conditionally issued two production licences to LASMO Nova Scotia Limited and Nova Scotia Resources (Ventures) Limited.
- We approved five geophysical/geological programs, including a geochemical program, conventional reflection seismic programs, 3D reflection seismic program and a wellsite seabed survey
- We began preparations to store and curate geological and geophysical reports, records, samples and materials at our Geoscience Research Centre in Dartmouth, where our facility remains today.
Values
At our outset, we valued public engagement and held public meetings to better understand safety, environmental and socio-economic components of potential projects. We created opportunities for engagement to ensure thoughtful public participation in our decision-making process.
In Mr. Weir’s inaugural address in our 1990 Annual Report, he wrote of his vision for how our organization would strive to maintain a highly credible status with the public, government and industry through communication, fair judgment, timely responses and professionalism.
30 years later, these values remain as we pursue our mission of being trusted and recognized for the high standards to which we hold the oil and gas industry accountable so that petroleum-related activities in our offshore area are carried out safely and responsibly.
To learn more about our mandate and operations, click here.