Nova Scotia¡¯s deputy energy minister is making a pitch with a twist this week at an oil and gas trade show in Houston.

  Alison Scott is selling Nova Scotia¡¯s onshore potential and promoting a site for tidal power generation in the Bay of Fundy.For years the province has been sending a delegation to Texas to attend Houston¡¯

s Offshore Technology Conference, a large and influential oil and gas trade show. This year the delegation is trying sell Nova Scotia¡¯s onshore potential.

  There are eight active petroleum exploration licences in Nova Scotia; three in coal-bed methane and five in conventional oil, gas and shale, she said.Triangle Petroleum of Calgary plans to spend $37 million this year drilling new wells at its recent shale gas discovery in Kennetcook, Hants County, about 70 kilometres north of Halifax.

  Ms. Scott said the coal-bed methane project led by Stealth contains an estimated one trillion cubic feet of gas.Coal-bed methane is an unconventional source of natural gas, and wells are expensive to drill. Methane is a primary component of natural gas.Nova Scotia doesn¡¯t yet have a commercial onshore oil or natural gas discovery.

  Besides government officials, about 31 Nova Scotia companies, organizations and universities representatives have made the trip to North America¡¯s oil and gas capital.Nova Scotia¡¯s Energy Minister Richard Hurlburt spent Sunday and Monday in Houston in private meetings and then returned to Halifax, said an Energy Department spokesman.

  He said a lot of the companies attend the trade show, where more than 50,000 people are expected to check out the latest technology and find out what is going on in the industry.
Many go down to see the latest gadgets and also to see who needs what and make new business contacts,he said Tuesday in an interview.

  She also pointed out that regulatory approval for Nova Scotia¡¯s second offshore natural-gas project, the $750-million Deep Panuke project near Sable Island, took 10 months to receive regulatory ap-proval, while the province¡¯s only gas-producing project, the Sable Offshore Energy Project, took 15 months.EnCana¡¯s Atlantic Canada vice-president, Dave Kopperson, spoke in Houston at the conference Monday to a sold-out luncheon, where he updated oil and gas representatives on the EnCana-led Deep Panuke project.