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Illustration by Ata Ojani For Newfoundland and Labrador, oil is its major source of revenue and a perpetual thorn in its side. The province has ambitious plans to double offshore oil production by 2030, and is encouraging major oil companies to explore its offshore further in an attempt to attract multibillion-dollar investments. In the first part of this series, Canada’s National Observer mapped all current oil exploration, production and significant discovery licences as well as areas where companies have been invited to bid on projects this year to see the scope of the possible expansion. To understand why the province is investing so heavily in offshore oil at a time when the world recognizes the need to end the reliance on fossil fuels, it helps to rewind to March 2020. As COVID-19 was spreading, an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia hit Newfoundland and Labrador hard. The price of oil plummeted, creating a crisis for Canada’s easternmost province, which is heavily reliant on oil revenue to pay for services for its population of about 520,000. Newfoundland and Labrador was worried about its cash flow given that in the two decades before the pandemic hit, the oil industry […]
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