{"id":77948,"date":"2026-07-06T22:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/77948\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T22:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:33:08","slug":"equinor-to-acquire-bps-stake-in-bay-du-nord-offshore-oil-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/77948\/","title":{"rendered":"Equinor to acquire BP\u2019s stake in Bay du Nord offshore oil project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Workers on the West Hercules offshore oil rig drilling on the Bay du Nord oil field east of St. John’s in 2014.Greg Locke\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador says he\u2019s confident in the future of the Bay du Nord oil project off the coast of St. John\u2019s after majority owner Equinor ASA EQNR-N<\/a> announced Monday it would acquire the remaining stake of the venture owned by BP PLC BP-N<\/a>.<\/p>\n

London-based BP holds a working interest of roughly 37 per cent in Bay du Nord. Under the deal that would go to Equinor ASA, the operator of the proposed $16-billion project. There was no dollar amount attached to the transaction, but the move would boost Equinor\u2019s ownership to 100 per cent.<\/p>\n

Equinor, which is based in Norway, is due to make a final investment decision on Bay du Nord early next year. The company said holding the full interest of the project would also give it more flexibility as it considers the project.<\/p>\n

Philippe Mathieu, Equinor\u2019s executive vice-president of exploration and production, said in a statement that the company has reduced key risks for Bay du Nord in recent years, thereby strengthening the project\u2019s business case. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis transaction reflects our confidence in the project,\u201d Mr. Mathieu said in a statement. \u201cWe will seek opportunities to bring in partners as part of the project\u2019s further development.\u201d <\/p>\n

Newfoundland launches calls for bids on 16 offshore energy exploration parcels<\/a><\/p>\n

Premier Tony Wakeham said Monday that Equinor\u2019s comments underscore the company\u2019s enthusiasm for Bay du Nord. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a sign of confidence of the project that they\u2019re willing to take this on themselves,\u201d Mr. Wakeham said in an interview on the sidelines of a separate announcement in Calgary. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re talking about the opportunity for improved efficiencies and actually potentially moving the schedule up, so it\u2019s good news.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr. Wakeham said all of his discussions with Equinor about Bay du Nord have been \u201cnothing but positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The province and Equinor signed an agreement<\/a> in March on how to divvy up the development\u2019s anticipated rewards. Under the agreement, the project would provide up to $6.4-billion in direct revenue to the province over its first 25-year phase, through royalties, taxes and a possible equity stake. Equinor would also provide the government with a $200-million \u201cfabrication fund\u201d to build a floating dry dock capable of serving ships weighing more than 18,000 tonnes. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an exciting project,\u201d Mr. Wakeham said Monday, adding that requests for proposals on various parts of the project had already been announced and were moving forward. <\/p>\n

Alberta, Ontario propose new pipeline in bid to boost Canada\u2019s energy independence<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bay du Nord project consists of several oil<\/a> discoveries in the Flemish Pass basin, roughly 500 kilometres east of St. John\u2019s. Originally set to tap up to 300 million barrels of oil over a 30-year lifespan, it could produce closer to one billion barrels through potential tie-in projects because of nearby discoveries in 2020. The development would open the province\u2019s fifth offshore oil field and be its first deepwater oil project.<\/p>\n

Equinor had put Bay du Nord on ice in 2023<\/a> after volatile market conditions caused significant cost increases. At the time, the company said it would reassess the project to see if \u201cfurther optimizations\u201d could be made.<\/p>\n

Gordon Birrell, BP\u2019s executive vice-president of upstream operations, said in a statement Monday that the company was proud of its partnership with Equinor and the work it has done to develop the Bay du Nord project. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, BP is exercising strict capital discipline, allocating it to the opportunities that create the most value.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company noted it would continue to hold a 100-per-cent interest in two exploration licences off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Workers on the West Hercules offshore oil rig drilling on the Bay du…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21198],"tags":[5564,5555,5420,67,6704,345,5547,5565,1193,5546,5560,5561,5557,5548,5545,254,28,528,5559,5553,5576,5549,5550,181,5556,424,2441,5566,5551,5571,5572,5574,5569,5573,5567,5570,2843,5562,5563,14,654,5568,5554,1426,104,5558,5552,46,5575],"class_list":["post-77948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bp","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-bp","tag-bp-plc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}