HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s premier says the only company with rights to explore for offshore oil and gas in the province missed Monday’s deposit deadline.
Tim Houston said in a social media post Monday that Nova Scotia’s Inceptio Oil and Gas would not be able to put $50 million down as required.
In April, regulators approved a $210-million exploration bid from the company, led by Nova Scotian James Edens, who is also president of Scotland-based Inceptio UK.
Inceptio needed to put down 25 per cent of the bid price — about $52 million — in order to obtain a licence for activities such as seismic testing and drilling. Ottawa and the province had twice previously directed the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Energy Regulator to extend the deadline, in May and August.
Edens said in an email that the company was pleased with the support it received from the provincial and federal governments, including the extensions. He said there was significant interest in the project, but the company could not secure enough domestic investment in time to meet the deposit deadline.
“Foreign investment was sourced, but was limited by mandatory reviews for foreign ownership in natural resources, with incompatible timelines with our security-posting needs,” wrote Edens. “We will monitor the licensing framework proposed in future call for bids for supportive change.”
The regulator said in an email Tuesday that legislation requires an exploration licence to be issued within six months of the call for bids closing.
With the deadline passed, a new call for bids will have to be issued before Inceptio or any other company can seek to explore in Nova Scotia’s waters. Those calls are typically issued around mid-April.
Inceptio Ltd., which has common principal shareholders with Inceptio Oil and Gas but is a separate company, had previously been approved for an offshore exploration licence. However, the provincial and federal governments jointly vetoed the approval in 2023.
Jonathan Wilkinson, Natural Resources minister at the time, said the $1.5-million bid was small, raising questions around risk and complexity of the project.
Houston said in a social media post Monday that the lack of progress is a setback, but the province remains committed to developing its offshore resources.
“Hard things are hard but we will continue laying the groundwork for a stronger, more resilient Nova Scotia that can stand on its own and meet the challenges of tomorrow,” Houston said on social media.
The premier has pushed hard to kick-start Nova Scotia’s resource sector since his second term began in 2024. He has said the province needs to exploit its natural gas and other resources to better withstand economic challenges from the United States, including President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Along with a renewed focus on offshore oil and gas, his government has pursued wind and hydrogen development, and has lifted long-term bans on onshore natural gas fracking as well as uranium mining.
While the private sector has demonstrated interest in wind and hydrogen, there’s been little activity in Nova Scotia’s offshore fossil fuel sector since the Sable and Deep Panuke gas projects shut down in 2018. The projects combined to generate billions in royalties for the province over 25 years of offshore exploration and development.
There’s about 90-billion cubic metres of gas confirmed to exist on the Scotian shelf and a potential for more than 10 times that amount, says the province.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2026.
Devin Stevens, The Canadian Press
Correction
This is a corrected article. A previous version incorrectly stated that Inceptio Oil and Gas was based in the U.K. In fact, the company is incorporated in Nova Scotia. While Inceptio Oil and Gas has principal shareholders in common with Inceptio Ltd. and Inceptio UK Ltd., the companies do not have ownership stakes in each another.
