The Oil and Gas Exploration Economic Model has been made available by the Nova Scotia Department of Energy. This excel based model is designed to provide screening economics for the evaluation of oil and gas exploration prospects and discoveries on the Nova Scotian shelf in the shallow waters around Sable Island, either as tie-ins to existing infrastructure or as stand-alone developments, and in deep water either as stand alone or with subsea tie back to existing infrastructure.

The model provides full cycle calculations, from exploration to abandonment, and includes Nova Scotia offshore royalty and provincial and federal corporate income taxes. The government share is therefore incorporated into the cash flow and economic indicator calculations.

In late 2007, the Nova Scotia Department of Energy (Energy) commissioned the development of a risk based offshore economic model, in Microsoft Excel format, that allows exploration and scoping economics to be performed for small field exploration and development (gas and oil) in the offshore Sable Island area of Nova Scotia. Since then Energy has expanded the model to run deepwater greenfield exploration scenarios including stand alone as well as sub-sea tie back to existing offshore Scotian Shelf infrastructure. The current version of the model is available free of charge at the following web site: www.gov.ns.ca/energy/oil-gas/offshore/economic-scoping-tool