There's plenty of room in the pool at the Bay of Fundy, and another energy company has decided to take a dip in the high tides.

Saint John, New Brunswick-based Irving Oil has teamed up with the non-profit Huntsman Marine Science Centre to conduct a two-year research program on 11 potential power generating sites off the north shore of the bay.

New Brunswick's Department of Natural Resources approved the venture after putting out a request for proposals in January for research in support of in-stream tidal power generation.

The Bay of Fundy, which sits between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick to the north and Nova Scotia to the south, is the site of the highest tides in the world.

"If some areas in the bay are approved for tidal power development, we would certainly be interested in being part of that development," Jeff Landry, manager of business development for Irving Oil, told the Cleantech Group.

But Landry said the company is still a number of steps away from that point, and that it would up to the government of New Brunswick to move forward on any potential power projects.

The bay is already home to one proposed tidal power project on the Nova Scotia side (see Bay of Fundy to get three test turbines).

Earlier this year, the government of Nova Scotia picked three candidates to test their tidal power generators in what would be North America's first tidal power test site.

Hantsport, Nova Scotia's Minas Basin Pulp and Power will be handling the construction of the $12 million facility, which could be up and running as early as next year.

For Irving Oil, the first step is the research. The company is putting up $600,000 for the study, which will collect information on the natural environment, tidal patterns, climatic conditions and behavior of marine life in the selected areas.

Landry said three of the 11 locations in the bay would be near a proposed second oil refinery in Saint John.

"If that site was feasible for generating power and we were able to do that down the road, physically it would be possible to connect that to a second refinery," he said.

Irving Oil has signed a memorandum of understanding with London's BP (NYSE: BP) on the $7 billion, 300,000 barrel per day refinery project.

The company already has one 300,000 barrel per day refinery in the area, exporting more than half of the facility's petroleum products to the U.S. Northeast.

The tidal power sites being looked at by Irving are Crown land sites of 25 hectares each, including the Head Harbour Passage and Western Passage areas of Passamaquoddy Bay, the Cape Enrage area near Chignecto Bay, and the Cape Spencer area near Saint John.

Take a look at Cape Enrage here >> 

The Huntsman Marine Science Centre is located in St. Andrews on the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay and will be conducting the research.

"Using boat-mounted Doppler devices to criss-cross these areas and get a profile of what the currents look like," said Landry.

And while there won't be any turbines going in the water at this stage, there will be some toes getting wet.

Huntsman is expected to deploy floating stationary sampling devices which would be left in place for 30 to 60 days in certain areas that are identified as "hot spots."

"They would be basically anchored to the ocean floor for a short time and you would get a bit more detailed data that way," said Landry.

This is Irving Oil's first investment in tidal power, but the company made some moves in wind earlier this year, putting up meteorological towers to measure the gusts near a liquid natural gas receiving and regasification terminal that's being built in Saint John.

"If it looks promising, we may attempt to further investigate the possibility of a wind farm in that area, but we're at very, very preliminary stages there," said Landry.

Irving Oil is building the LNG terminal with Spain's Repsol YPF (NYSE: REP).

As for tidal turbine manufacturers, Landry said his company is keeping an open mind on potential future partners.

"As many as you see out there in the news from time to time, there's another couple of dozen on the workbench or in a lab somewhere being developed," he said.

"The timing's not right to pick the horse to ride as far as technology goes. We've got a lot we're going to learn over the next few years, and by then the technology landscape could look totally different."