The province’s offshore regulator says there were no takers following a recent call for bids for exploration licences in the eastern Newfoundland offshore.
The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board offered up 41 parcels totalling more than 10 million hectares.
It’s not the first it’s happened. In 2021, there were no bids for parcels in the Labrador offshore, and last year there was no response after a similar call for bids in the Newfoundland offshore.
Energy NL says while the lack of bids in the current round was not unexpected, they say it is a serious concern and points to a “complex, inconsistent and burdensome regulatory system” as a significant contributing factor.
(Energy NL CEO Charlene Johnson)
CEO Charlene Johnson says offshore land sales lead to exploration which leads to new projects, and while the province has a “world-class resource with lower carbon oil” Canada does not “appear open for business to international investors” interested in the oil sector.
Examples of that regulatory uncertainty, according to Johnson, include the oil and gas emission cap regulations and what she calls the “greenwashing act.”
That’s in reference to new provisions added to the federal Competition Act that target so-called greenwashing. In other words, businesses are now required to have testing or substantiation to support particular environmental claims.
Despite the province’s world-class resources, Johnson says investment attraction in the NL offshore is “last class.”
