Government Announces Support for West White Rose Project

The provincial government announced some help for the struggling offshore oil industry on Thursday.

Premier Furey announced support for the West White Rose Project – the first project to be funded under the Oil and Gas Industry Recovery Assistance Fund.

Husky Energy on behalf of the West White Rose partners will receive $41.5 million (50 percent of total project costs) to maintain jobs in the near-term and protect the option of re-starting the West White Rose Project in 2022 if conditions permit.

On September 25, 2020, the federal government announced $320 million to be administered by the Province to support direct and indirect employment in the Newfoundland and Labrador oil and gas sector and activities that generate environmental and co-benefits. Established by Premier Furey, the Task Force was asked to develop recommendations on eligibility parameters and priority criteria for the Fund.

Three target areas for the Fund have been identified by the Task Force:

• Maintenance of existing installations;

• Increasing production in the basin; and,

• Accelerating production.

The Task Force has recommended a two-stream approach for the solicitation and evaluation of funding proposals. Stream one totals $288 million and targets operators of existing offshore installations. The remaining $32 million is allocated to stream two for support of the service and supply community.