National Post (Canada). Nova Scotia’s struggling offshore energy sector suffered a potential death blow yesterday with the closure of the only remaining well slated to be drilled by a major oil company.

Marathon Canada Petroleum said its $80-million exploratory well will be “permanently plugged and abandoned” after it failed to find oil, and though the company holds other licences in the area, it has no plans for further drilling.

The Crimson well was the last of the exploration wells being drilled or planned for the province’s offshore after a major project from ExxonMobil came up empty two weeks ago. No other wells have been announced.

In the last four years, major oil companies, from Calgary-based EnCana Corp. to Texas-based ExxonMobil, have spent more than $1.2-billion pursuing costly drilling programs in the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia.

Any optimistic talk about the major oil production potential of new regions has to be leavened with the reality of experiences like these. $1.2 billion literally down the hole. Now, what might that $1.2 billion have produced applied to another area? Say, research on renewables? Or funding hydrogen infrastructure for the downstream businesses (refining and marketing) of the oil companies. Of course, you can’t really look at it that way, from a business point of view. But still...