Premier Tony Wakeham drew applause at the opening of the Energy NL conference on Tuesday morning, with full-throated support for the province’s offshore oil sector and reminder of public money on offer for new oil exploration.
“Under my government, Newfoundland and Labrador apologizes to nobody,” he told the gathering at the St. John’s Convention Centre.
Energy NL is an industry association with both producing companies and their supply and service contractors. They are collectively chasing revenue from fossil fuel project work, renewable energy projects or a little of both.
Wakeham opened his address talking about the oil business, first with a shot at the administration of former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. He claimed Trudeau and his Environment ministers were “happy to see our oil and gas sector fail.”
He did not mention the Trudeau government’s contributions to oil and gas companies during the COVID-19 pandemic, or the decision for release of the Bay du Nord offshore oil project from environmental assessment in 2022 despite a strong environmental lobby against the project.
“Now we have a new prime minister and a new government who actually want to build things and want to get things done,” Wakeham said.
As a specific example, he highlighted the federal government’s commitment to the proposed Bay du Nord project, in publicly agreeing to its responsibility for meeting Canada’s commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The development area rests in part beyond Canada’s exclusive economic zone and the international agreement will require Canada to contribute some of the financial benefits from any production from site to the UN for re-disbursement.
Bay du Nord is a project being advanced by Equinor and BP, with a final investment decision expected early next year. Between now and then, the provincial government will decide if it will be taking an equity stake in the project and under what terms.
There was more support for Wakeham, as he noted a provincial commitment to provide up to $30 million in support to oil companies for new exploration wells drilled offshore. The Offshore Exploration Fund was included in this year’s provincial budget, with a total of $90 million on offer over three years.
As the energy conference continues, some of the discussion will be around that public money and the new call for bids for exploration licences issued by the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Energy Regulator (C-NLOER). The call covers 16 areas in the eastern and south-eastern regions offshore Newfoundland. In the eastern region there are 13 parcels covering a total of more than 2.9 million hectares. In the south-eastern region, it’s three parcels covering just over 777,000 hectares.
Licences are awarded based on exploration spending commitments. The minimum for any bid is $10 million. The deadline for bids is Nov. 4.
The call and leases are part of the offshore land tenure system. The CNLOER issued notice in November 2025 the system was under review. It was driven, per the board’s statement, by a desire to reduce the time needed for companies to get to essential approvals and authorizations, to make it possible to move more quickly to discoveries and production.
The process was adjusted to also require companies to enter confidential talks with the province on what supporting funds would flow from the province to help in covering some of their costs.
The Government of Canada also added to the energy news, announcing financial support for four, energy-related projects in the province. The largest contribution is $2.6 million to Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, to help identify and introduce energy-saving features for industrial facilities in communities served by diesel power plants.
Tacora Resources will receive $141,500 for introduction of a new energy management system at Scully Mine in Wabush. $497,200 in federal funds will help Angler Solutions assess the potential for a regional carbon capture and storage hub offshore. A $1.2-million federal contribution will go to Aker Solutions’ assessment of the feasibility of a carbon dioxide transport and offshore storage development.
Federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne spoke briefly to the project contributions during a fireside chat with Energy NL CEO Charlene Johnson.
On the subject of federal support for the energy sector, the CEO took the opportunity to ask about potential for new investment tax credits for the offshore.
“We’re going to do everything we can on our side to make this jurisdiction as the most competitive I can imagine in terms of new investment,” Champagne said.
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