Grant: Engage Grants Program

Saint Brendan's Exploration is an oil and gas exploration and production company focused on the developmentof opportunities in the Canadian Maritimes. Based on new vehicle-based technologies used that can be used toidentify natural seepage of methane from soils (developed at Saint Francis Xavier University), the proposedresearch seeks to examine the potential of this mobile sensing technique as a tool in the exploration anddevelopment of coal seams and gas deposits in Nova Scotia. Through the comparison of the mobile surveytechnique to traditional ground-based exploration survey techniques, the feasibility of using the mobiletechnique as an exploration tool will be assessed. Additionally, while the mobile technique determinesmagnitude of methane concentrations, the ability of determining the origin of the gas will also be assessed. Assome of Nova Scotia's organic soils are methane producers, the ability to differentiate methane concentrationsthat are of fossil origin from those of natural biological processes within the soil would prove useful not only inexploration, but as a monitoring technique throughout development and production activities as well.