Premier Highlights Oil Discoveries in Province’s Offshore
Executive Council
2020-10-29

The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Andrew Furey, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador:


Mr. Speaker, I have exciting news to share today regarding the Flemish Pass. Equinor and its partner BP have made oil discoveries at the Cappahayden and Cambriol prospects, which were drilled this past summer by the Transocean Barents.

I congratulate the team who worked on this drill program. They successfully executed a safe campaign – even as they faced additional challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I also wanted to share that yesterday, the CNLOPB issued a significant discovery licence to Equinor based on the Harpoon O-85 exploration well. The two discoveries Equinor announced today along with the Harpoon significant discovery will potentially accelerate development of the Bay du Nord Project and bodes well for Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore future.

Mr. Speaker, the magnitude of Newfoundland and Labrador’s resource potential continues to grow. Just last month the 2020 oil and gas resource assessment showed a combined resource potential of 63.6 billion barrels of oil and 224.1 trillion cubic feet of gas in just 10 per cent of the province’s offshore.

This government is committed to ensuring the continued success of our offshore oil and gas industry and to maximizing the benefits of our industry to the people of the province.

There are a number of creative solutions we are implementing to help sustain the offshore oil and gas industry.

We now have a new regional assessment process that maintains the strong protection of the offshore environment while significantly shortening timelines for exploration drilling program approval.

Also, we recently announced an offshore exploration incentive to encourage more wells to be drilled – enhancing global competitiveness at a critical time and positioning the province to realize its significant resource potential.

Mr. Speaker, by investing in offshore exploration, we are encouraging offshore exploration drilling – leading to discoveries like we have today. Thank you.

2020 10 29 1:55 pm