Companies that help supply or service Nova Scotia's offshore petroleum industry are looking for a piece of the action now that Shell has said how it plans to spend $1 billion.

The industry giant will begin a massive effort to find oil off the coast of Nova Scotia next spring.

Rick Hunter, general manager of McGregor Geoscience, has been working in an offshore area between Baffin Island and Greenland for several years.

He says the Nova Scotia company would rather be working locally.

"It's good to be closer to home for the people that work for us, obviously," says Hunter.

"We've got three scientific ships that we want to put to work. They are all capable of doing seabed surveys, seabed mapping and environmental baseline studies — that type of information that they will require eventually as they move forward with their program."

Hunter says this will be a good project for the province.

"You look at the Newfoundland offshore and you can see the levels of activity that are happening. It's a very exciting time for them and I hope to see Nova Scotia enjoy some of that as well."

This isn't the only Nova Scotia company looking to get involved with Shell.

I.H. Mathers & Son Ltd. has been in the shipping business in Nova Scotia since 1872. CEO Brian Lane says all that experience should help.

"We're fortunate here because we've been involved in just about every piece of significant offshore oil and gas work that's gone on off of Nova Scotia, especially seismic," he says.

Lane says given Shell's plan to start seismic work next spring, it's going to have to start gearing up soon. That means local companies could start to cash-in on the oil giant's return in the region as early as this fall.