Nova Scotia’s offshore oil dream awaits better news: ‘It doesn’t look good’
HALIFAX — Shell’s decision to seal two exploration wells off Nova Scotia has set back the province’s dream of offshore riches, but analysts say it’s early days in what may prove to be a complex geological hunt.
Wade Locke, a resource economist at Memorial University says Shell’s confirmation this week it’s abandoning the Monterey Jack well, along with news its Cheshire deepwater well did not have commercial quantities of oil, are not confidence boosters.
“It doesn’t look good. That’s not a good sign,” he said in a telephone interview from St. John’s, N.L.
Back in 2003, optimism abounded that as the plays in shallower waters such as the Sable Offshore Energy Project wound down, the efforts in deeper waters would yield oil and keep royalties flowing and jobs on rigs and research vessels.