For the third time in four years, Nova Scotia's offshore petroleum regulator has announced no bids were received for this year's annual exploration parcel offer.

The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) announced Thursday morning it received no bids on the six offshore parcels offered this year.

The regulator's annual call for bids identifies huge quadrants of space and asks companies to bid on the chance to drill for oil or natural gas beneath the sea floor.

'Not overly surprising'

Michel Samson, Nova Scotia's energy minister, said the government is disappointed but the situation is "not overly surprising considering the status of the industry and the fact that many of the largest players have cancelled projects throughout the world in light of the downturn with oil prices."

Samson said year-to-year variations in bids is the nature of the industry.

"The fact that we still have $2.2 billion in exploration commitments for Nova Scotia certainly gives us confidence that the companies that have made these investment commitments are confident, themselves, that they are going to find hydrocarbons in Nova Scotia's offshore," he said.

These are the six parcels that were open to bids this year. (CNSOPB)

Current oil and gas exploration in Nova Scotia

In 2012, Shell Canada Limited and BP Exploration Operating Company Limited each committed to spend more than $1 billion to search for oil and gas off Nova Scotia's coast.

In 2013 and 2014, no bids were received for the parcels offered by the CNSOPB.

In 2015, Statoil Canada Ltd. bid $82 million to explore two parcels, while seven other parcels that year did not receive any bids.

So far, only Shell has begun exploration. Crews drilled one underwater well in which "commercial quantities of hydrocarbon were not found," the company said in a news release.

Earlier this year, the company also hit a snag when a huge piece of drilling equipment fell to the ocean floor.

Shell is now drilling a second exploratory well.

BP announced in March it would delay the start of its exploration until 2018 — the final year of their allotted time window.