The decision had been postponed several times in recent months, a sign of the Canadian government’s embarrassment on the subject. He finally decided on Wednesday April 6, in the evening. Verdict: the gigantic offshore oil project will see the light of day. It is a question of exploiting a deposit called Bay du Nord, located at a depth of 1,000 meters, 470 km off Newfoundland in the Atlantic.
The Norwegian oil company Equinor, at the origin of the project, intends to drill 60 wells in total, all from not a platform as we see in the North Sea, but a huge boat. The field is expected to become Canada’s 5th largest platform, with a target of 200,000 barrels of oil per day from 2023. In total, more than 300 million barrels seem recoverable.
The Canadian government justifies its decision by stressing that this deposit will create 16,000 jobs in Newfoundland, a region affected by unemployment twice as high as the national average. He adds that tax revenues will exceed $10 billion. And that energy independence is a key issue at a time of war in Ukraine and economic conflict with Russia.
This decision therefore appears to be totally contradictory with the country’s climate commitments. It comes more than 48 hours after the new report by IPCC scientists, which sets a three-year ultimatum to reverse the trend on fossil fuels. Afterwards it will be, according to them, too late for the climate. Choosing this moment to trigger a massive new oil exploitation project may come as a surprise.
Especially since during the last election campaign, Justin Trudeau had brandished a strong commitment on the climate by affirming: “We need to make sure that the oil and gas industry starts reducing its emissions”. And then the marine area concerned has a fairly rare ecosystem: 14 species of marine mammals, 15 species of threatened birds. Associations and environmentalist or left-wing parties are furious in Canada. They call the decision “irresponsible disaster” and of “slap in the face of climate scientists”.
The Canadian government replies that the environmental specifications imposed on Equinor are very strict: 137 clauses. Both on the protection of biodiversity: limitation of noise pollution and guarantees on fish habitats. And also on pollution related to extraction: emissions are supposed to be limited to 8 kg of CO2 per barrel, which is half the international average.
The Canadian Minister of the Environment does not hesitate to conclude that this will be a “responsible oil project” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The reasoning goes very badly with climate specialists. They point out that even if the extraction is “responsible”, the combustion of oil remains polluting at the end of the chain. Canada is one of the world’s worst performers when it comes to climate commitments. It is the 4th world producer of hydrocarbons. A few weeks ago, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called him to order, asking him to slow down on fossil fuels. The message was not heard.