Equinor<\/a>, two-thirds owned by the Norwegian government, aims to make a final investment decision on the project early next year, subject to market conditions and regulatory and internal approvals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cOver the past few years, we have strengthened Bay du Nord by improving the business case and reducing key risks. This transaction reflects our confidence in the project as we continue maturing it towards a final investment decision,\u201d said Philippe Mathieu, executive vice-president for international exploration and production at Equinor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will seek opportunities to bring in partners as part of the project\u2019s further development.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Equinor estimates recoverable resources of more than 400 million barrels of oil in the project\u2019s first phase, which is expected to cost $14 billion. First oil is targeted for 2031.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Newfoundland and Labrador, there are high hopes among government and the oil industry that Equinor will proceed with Bay du Nord. The provincial government is considering purchasing a stake in the project and it is expected to make a decision later this year.<\/p>\n
Premier Tony Wakeham interpreted Monday\u2019s news as a \u201cpositive step forward\u201d for Bay du Nord and the province\u2019s offshore energy industry.<\/p>\n
Equinor is clearly committed to the project and is now taking on its full ownership, Wakeham said in a news release.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a strong vote of confidence in Bay du Nord, in our province, and in the long-term potential of our offshore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The province has said Bay du Nord would deliver about $6.4 billion in royalties, taxes and a 10 per cent equity stake in the project\u2019s first 25-year phase. Without the equity stake, the province would bring in about $5 billion, officials have said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, The Sierra Club said BP\u2019s exit signalled the project was not worthy of public investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat BP has now exited shows this project is not viable and we need a rapid, community-focused build-out of transmission infrastructure for renewables, like offshore wind, for (Newfoundland and Labrador) instead,\u201d the environmental group said in a news release Monday.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 6, 2026.<\/p>\n
Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 BP says it has signed a deal to sell its interest in the Bay du Nord…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,14236,14237],"class_list":["post-784669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-oilgas","tag-utilities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}