The government of Canada, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, has approved the construction of a controversial major oil project in the Atlantic Ocean, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced on Wednesday 6 April. This project, called Bay du Nord and supported for years by the Norwegian giant Equinor, will make it possible to exploit an oil field at a depth of more than one kilometer 500 kilometers off the coast of the province of Newfoundland. The commissioning of the project is scheduled for 2028.

It will be the fifth oil rig of its kind in Canada and will allow the extraction of approximately 300 million barrels of oil over 30 years, according to the company. “The Bay du Nord development project can proceed, subject to some of the most stringent environmental conditions ever imposed, including the historic requirement for an oil and gas project to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050,” the minister and ex-climate activist said in a statement.

According to a comprehensive environmental assessment, the project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects, he added. “The world still needs oil,” then told Radio Canada the man who had been chosen for the portfolio of Minister of the Environment last October by Justin Trudeau for his past as an activist.

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