Questerre Energy wins Nova Scotia's first oil-and-gas exploration bid round, securing exclusive rights on Cumberland Basin acreage in a deal the CEO compares to the company's Quebec Utica entry.
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Questerre Energy Corp. has been selected as the winning bidder in the first round of Nova Scotia's Subsurface Energy Research and Development Investment Program. The Calgary-based company is now negotiating a Petroleum Exploration Agreement covering onshore lands in the Cumberland Basin of northern Nova Scotia.
The basin is prospective for oil and natural gas across multiple formations. Subject to final terms, the deal would grant Questerre exclusive exploration rights and a path to commercial development if it makes a discovery.
Questerre holds what it calls a significant natural gas discovery in the Quebec Utica shale, one of the largest undeveloped gas resources in Eastern Canada. The company entered that play more than 25 years ago.
CEO Michael Binnion called the Nova Scotia entry a similar opportunity. "Over 25 years ago, we acquired a significant land position in Quebec that ultimately led to our giant Utica gas discovery," he said in a release. "Our entry into Nova Scotia offers a similar opportunity to apply our extensive subsurface expertise in a new prospective basin."
In Quebec, the company's Utica discovery has remained in a development standoff with the provincial government over a de facto moratorium on unconventional drilling. Binnion referenced that directly. "Our experience in Quebec gave us more than the subsurface expertise to evaluate a frontier basin," he said. "It also gave us a hard-earned appreciation that earning public confidence is as important to developing a resource as understanding the geology."
Nova Scotia's program is structured around research partnerships. Binnion listed Dalhousie University along with local communities and the Department of Energy as collaborators. He also tied the move to Premier Tim Houston's broader energy-security push.
Questerre trades on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker QEC.
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