The government of Canada, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, has given the go-ahead for the construction of a controversial large-scale oil project in the Atlantic Ocean, Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced.
the so-called Bay du Nord plans to exploit an oil field more than a kilometer deep, 500 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland. It is planned that crude extraction starts in 2028.
“The Bay du Nord project can go ahead, subject to some of the strictest environmental conditions ever imposed, including the historic requirement that an oil and gas project be carbon neutral by 2050,” Guilbeault said. , a former climate activist.
Based on the environmental assessment, the project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects, the minister added.
The project caused so many doubts that the decision on its approval has been postponed twice in recent months.
It will be the fifth oil platform of this type in Canada and will allow the extraction of 300 million barrels of oil in 30 years, according to the company.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been criticized in recent years by environmentalists for his decisions related to the oil sector, especially for having nationalized an oil pipeline in 2018.