The province’s finance minister says although they want to reduce the reliance on oil and gas in terms of budget requirements, it has a bright future here in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Tom Osborne says there are 114 exploration wells registered with the province, with many of those registered with Environment Canada. Exploration on some of those will happen as early as 2020.

Osborne says they are told by the industry that somewhere between one in every six or seven of those wells should be a profitable project for the province.

He says the province’s future is bright, but the challenge is bridging from where the province is now to that future.