Apply for oil and gas rights

The 1st stage in getting oil and gas rights is for an oil and gas company to submit a request for posting. This is an expression of interest to acquire oil and gas rights in a specific location.

Eligibility

Your business must be:

• a corporation that's incorporated, continued, or registered under the territorial Business Corporations Act;
• incorporated or continued under the federal Bank Act;
• licensed under the territorial Insurance Act; or
• approved by us as a corporation that may hold a permit.

Find a location for oil and gas resources to request

The Yukon has 8 sedimentary basins.

• View a map of Yukon’s oil and gas basins.
• View the oil and gas resource assessments for these basins.

Not all areas are open for oil and gas rights. As we are not accepting requests for postings at this time, we do not have a map of open areas.

The location cannot be on land that:

• is First Nation Category A or Category B Settlement Land;
• belongs to the Government of Canada;
• we have withdrawn from disposition;
• already has an oil and gas permit or lease;
• has a coal licence or lease from the Government of Canada;
• is withdrawn for future land claims;
• is within the traditional territories of:
  • Ross River Dena Council;
  • Liard First Nation; and
  • White River First Nation; or
• is a:
  • park;
  • special management area; or
  • habitat protection area.

The Yukon is divided up into grid areas, which in turn are divided into sections. Each grid area is 15 minutes of longitude by 10 minutes of latitude. The grid areas are divided into:

• 80 equal sections south of 68 degrees north latitude; and
• 60 equal sections north of 68 degrees north latitude.

View a poster on the Yukon land division system.

The location you choose cannot be:

• smaller than 1 section; or
• larger than 500 square kilometres. This is equal to 160 sections or 2 grids.

You must choose blocks that adjoin either laterally or diagonally.

Prepare your request for posting

Your request for posting must include:

• a completed request for posting form; and
• a map showing the requested permit location.

It may benefit your application to add a digital geo-referenced file. This can have metadata for the proposed permit location. This file is not required.

Read our guidelines for details about how to prepare your request for posting.

Submit your request for posting

We are not accepting request for postings at this time. When we begin accepting postings, we'll:

• review submissions semi-annually; and
• post the upcoming deadlines.

In person: We're located at 400 211 Main Street, in Whitehorse, Yukon. Our office is open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Email: petroleum@yukon.ca
Mail:
Government of Yukon
Geothermal and Petroleum Resources Branch (K-11)
Box 2703
Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2C6

You can confirm we received your request for posting by phoning 867-667-3427.

We keep confidential all information about the identity of people who submit.

If we decide to proceed with the request for posting, we'll begin a review that includes:

• an internal review by the Government of Yukon;
• consultations with affected First Nations; and
• a public review.

Consultation with First Nation governments

If the location requested is within your First Nation’s Traditional Territory, we will contact your government to request input.

Public review

After the First Nation consultations and our internal review, we'll hold a public review for 60 days.

We ask the public for input on:

• environmental issues;
• socio-economic impacts; and
• surface access concerns.

Environmental issues

We want to know if you have knowledge about:

• high-value wildlife areas;
• ecologically-sensitive areas; and
• rare plant species.

Socio-economic impact

We want to know how future oil and gas projects may affect your:

• livelihood;
• recreational opportunities; or
• culture.

Surface access

Let us know how the surface access of potential oil and gas activities could affect you. Include input on how we should manage the access.

Submit your input

Send us your written comments.
Email: petroleum@yukon.ca
Mail:
Government of Yukon
Geothermal and Petroleum Resources Branch (K-11)
Box 2703
Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2C6

After the review period, we issue a call for bids. We invite oil and gas companies to submit a work bid for oil and gas rights in the locations requested. A work bid is the dollar amount of expenditures that your company will commit for oil and gas exploration in the 1st term of your permit.

We issue an oil and gas permit for the location to the company who submitted the highest work bid.

Minimum bid

The minimum work bid we will consider is $400,000.

Eligibility

Bids are not restricted to the company that requested the location. Any eligible company can submit a bid on a location.

Your business must be:

• a corporation that's incorporated, continued, or registered under the territorial Business Corporations Act;
• incorporated or continued under the federal Bank Act;
• licensed under the territorial Insurance Act; or
• approved by us as a corporation that may hold a permit.

We will not reject your bid if you are not registered as an extra-territorial corporation under the Business Corporations Act. However, you must register within 30 days of being announced as the successful bidder.

Deadline

You will usually have 45 days after the end of the review to submit your bid. We'll announce the specific deadline for the call of bids. We must receive your bid before 11 a.m. on the deadline day.

Prepare your bid

1. View the schedule of allowable expenditures to help calculate your work bid.
2. Complete a work bid submission form for each location you want to bid on.
3. Include a work deposit of 25% of your work bid. Your work deposit must be payable to the Government of Yukon and be a:
   • bank draft;
   • money order;
   • certified cheque; or
   • if we approve, an irrevocable letter of credit or other financial instrument.
4. Include a permit issuance fee of $500 for each bid. This fee must be payable to the Government of Yukon and be a:
   • certified cheque;
   • bank draft; or
   • money order.

If you're unsuccessful in your bid, we'll return your work bid and permit issuance fee.

Submit your bid

1. You must submit each bid in its own sealed envelope. The envelope must contain the:
   • the application form;
   • the work deposit; and
   • the permit issuance fee.
2. Clearly mark the envelope “Yukon Call for Work Bids [Spring or Fall] [Year]: Location [number].”
3. You must put the 1st envelope into a 2nd envelope. The outer envelope can contain more than 1 inner bid envelope. Address the outer envelope to:
   Government of Yukon
   Geothermal and Petroleum Resources Branch (K-11)
   Box 2703
   Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2C6
4. Ensure that the inner and outer envelopes do not show any markings other than the above. They must not show anything that could identify you or the company making the bid. We may reject your bid if there is any identifying information.
5. Submit your bid to the Geothermal and Petroleum Resources Branch.
   In person: We're located at 400 211 Main Street, in Whitehorse, Yukon. Our office is open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
   Mail:
   Government of Yukon
   Geothermal and Petroleum Resources Branch (K-11)
   Box 2703
   Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2C6