Sable project: The beginning of the end

I moved to Nova Scotia about 3 months before the Sable Offshore Energy Project started producing natural gas on December 31, 1999. As I started work at the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC) I had to quickly figure out what this “Sable project,” and the excitement and anticipation associated with it, were all about. Now, 18 years, more than 59 billion cubic metres of gas, $7.2 billion in project spending ($2.9 billion in Nova Scotia), 38 million person hours of employment (24 million in Nova Scotia) and about $1.8 billion in royalties later, the Regina Allen jack-up drilling rig (see picture above) has just left the Halifax harbour to begin the work of plugging and abandoning the 22 wells as part of the decommissioning process for this project.