One of the players in the Newfoundland offshore oil patch doesn’t see a recent corporate merger as a good thing for one of the joint venture projects. However, the minister responsible for energy doesn’t see it that way.
West White Rose was intended to access 200-million barrels of crude and extend the life of the White Rose field by about 14 years. However, Suncor, which has a 26 per cent stake in West project, says the acquisition of project operator Husky by Cenovus Energy has cast significant doubt on the future of the project.
In a news release, Suncor is not including any major capital spend on the fledgling project in 2021. The minority owner is recording in the fourth quarter of 2020 a non-cash after-tax impairment charge of about $425-million on its share of the White Rose asset and West White Rose project.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology says Suncor is simply exercising an accounting practice. Andrew Parsons says Suncor’s move does not change the project in any way.
He says the financials don’t change. 2020 was a bad year for the industry and the minister says we just have to hope that oil prices continue to rebound.
