The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers is applauding incentives for companies to continue bidding and exploring for oil offshore.

The move by the provincial government will allow deposits on future bids to be reinvested rather than turned over to the government if the exploration doesn’t proceed.

The Petroleum Producers’ Director for Atlantic Canada and the Arctic, Paul Barnes, says while it’s good news on the exploration side, there’s still much work to be done in terms of development.

He says they are still seeing a lot of offshore projects either stalled or put on the back burner for a while, so they are hoping for more news today from Ottawa on the development side of things.