Texas brothers tackle Scotia deep waters

The Bass brothers of Texas, operating through their wholly owned BEPCo Canada Co., have acquired two deepwater exploration licenses covering 1.24 million acres offshore Nova Scotia for a total work commitment of C$12.6 million.

Under the license terms with the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board, BEPCo must pay 25 percent of the work commitment within three years to retain the permits and apply for extensions.

One parcel of 670,000 acres lies about 60 miles south of EnCana’s Deep Panuke project and 40 miles south of the Alma discovery site. The adjacent second parcel covers about 617,000 acres.

The parcels are about 47 miles east of another exploration license awarded to BEPCo in January 2002, but the company was unable to find a deepwater rig suitable for the challenging conditions in the offshore region. The company may apply for an extension of that license to the end of 2010.

BEPCo said it will need to conduct geological and geophysical programs, reprocess seismic and undertake environmental work before it can set a drilling schedule for the parcels.

South Korean company North Star Asia is a partner in the original BEPCo license and may be interested in farming in on the two new parcels, a company spokesman said.

—Gary Park