NOIA-Newfoundland & Labrador Oil & Gas Industries Association

General information

Noia is proud to celebrate 40 years of representing the province’s offshore supply and service sector in 2017.

According to Harry Pride, then of the Newfoundland Ocean Research Development Corporation (NORDCO) and one of Noia’s founding members, it was a sunny summer afternoon in 1977 when the concept for the Newfoundland Ocean Industries Association, now the Newfoundland and Labrador Oil & Gas Industries Association (Noia), was born.

Sharing a vision of an organization to help harness the potential of the province’s ocean industry and provide a voice for members in the global market, an initial conversation between Harry Pride and Rick Emberley of Saga Communications led to 15 member companies founding what is today the largest offshore industry association in Canada.

Over 40 years, Noia’s mandate has never wavered from promoting the growth of East Coast Canada’s oil & gas resources and facilitating its membership’s participation in global oil & gas industries. Education, information and advocacy have remained the cornerstones of Noia’s work for four decades.

While our mandate has never changed, our industry certainly has. Over 40 years, we have seen the price of oil go as high as $146/barrel in 2008 to as low as $27/barrel in 2016. We’ve come from expenditures offshore Newfoundland and Labrador of $1.2 million in 1977 to over $51.4 billion of cumulative investment to the end of 2015. Forty years ago, there was little known about our vast potential but today we know with certainty the potential of our basins with recent independent resource assessments of the Flemish Pass and West Orphan basins indicating 37.5 billion barrels of oil and 133.6 trillion cubic feet of gas potential.

Our 40-year anniversary is a turning point. As we celebrate our past and acknowledge those who were instrumental in getting us to where we are today, it is critical that we look to the future, which we know is very promising. Noia looks forward to continuing to support our members as we work together to turn our potential into reality – a long-term, sustainable offshore oil & gas industry for the benefit of all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.