The CEO of Energy NL is calling recent meetings with Prime Minister Mark Carney a “turning point ” for the local oil and gas industry.

Charlene Johnson says she was very encouraged by the industry’s conversations with Carney and how receptive he was to what they were saying.

“I feel it,” she told the Tim Powers Show on VOCM, “he was very receptive in our meeting, he actually asked about the bid round coming up in November, and I was so excited, a prime minister asking about a bid round. At which I remember saying to him, ‘it will be zero this November’ which was actually the case.”

She says they agreed to work toward a successful bid round for November of 2026, and she pointed to the emissions cap imposed during the previous administration.

She called it the “number one issue” holding them back. “And here we are today, because of the MOU (between Ottawa and Alberta) and because of the strong advocacy that we’ve been doing at Energy NL and others across the country…we’ve been advocating now for three years on this emissions cap and it’s now gone.”