Canada’s SOEP Gas Project Officially Ends

The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NSOPB) said December 31 the ExxonMobil-operated Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP) had officially ceased natural gas production after 20 years.

SOEP was Canada’s first offshore natural gas project. Located near Sable Island about 300 km southeast of Halifax, it began producing in December 1999 and on December 26, the last of the project’s 21 wells in five fields were plugged. The C-NSOPB declared the project ended in its December 31 weekly activity review.

(Map image courtesy ExxonMobil Canada)

Final abandonment operations, including the removal of seven offshore platforms and onshore infrastructure, will continue through 2019.

SOEP was a joint venture of ExxonMobil Canada, (50.8%), Shell Canada (31.3%), Imperial Oil (9%), Pengrowth Energy (8.4%) and Mosbacher Operating (0.5%). The discovery well, in the Thebaud field, was drilled in 1972, and over the next 14 years, four other fields – Venture, South Venture, Alma and North Triumph – were discovered.

First gas was produced on December 31, 1999, and in 2012 decommissioning studies and planning began. The partners began plugging SOEP’s 21 producing wells in 2017.