N.L. unveils plan for faster, cheaper offshore oil and gas development
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Cash-strapped Newfoundland and Labrador has launched a 12-year plan to speed and increase offshore oil and gas development while drawing coveted global investment.
The province will review regulations, enhance seismic data and advance cost-saving tie-back technology to extract more from existing sites. Its goal is to double overall production to more than 650,000 barrels a day by 2030.
Premier Dwight Ball called it an ambitious but realistic plan as his province grapples with mounting debt and successive deficits. Offshore oil earnings once accounted for about one-third of revenues but collapsing prices starting in 2014 blew a major hole in provincial finances.
“We can wait no longer,” Ball told a news conference Monday in St. John’s. “We are at a critical point. The time for action is now.”