Five successful bids were received in a call for bids for offshore exploration in the Eastern Newfoundland Region, said the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) in a statement. Successful bidders were BP Canada Energy Group, Equinor Canada, ExxonMobil Canada and QPI Energy Canada.
The bids totalled more than C$238m in work commitments and cover 1.2m hectares.
Together, Equinor Canada and BP Canada Energy Group won three bids, for parcels 26, 27 and 28, with bids of $15.2m, $14m and $10.8m. In each case, Equinor has a 60% interest and BP a 40% interest. The three parcels total 689,142 hectares.
BP Canada Energy Group also won 266,079-hectare parcel 12 as a single bidder, with a bid of $16.5m.
By far the largest bid was made for parcel 8, a 267,786-hectare area won with a bid of $181.6m. Successful bidders were ExxonMobil Canada Ltd., with a 70% interest, and QPI Energy Canada, a subsidiary of Qatar Petroleum, with a 30% interest.
The exploration licences are subject to approval by the federal and provincial governments and are expected to be issued in January 2023.
Further, as most of these parcels are beyond Canada’s 200 nautical mile zone, additional terms and conditions may be applied through legislation, regulations or amendments to licences to meet obligations under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
