One year after shelving Bay du Nord, this Equinor executive is a bit more optimistic

A year after dropping the massive news that Bay du Nord would be shelved for up to three years, Equinor's top executive in Canada says the company remains optimistic about the future of the country's first deepwater oil project.

Tore Løseth spoke with reporters Thursday at Energy N.L.'s annual conference — the same conference where a year ago his tone was more subdued, as he revealed the project would sit on the shelf "in the face of challenging market conditions."

"It was very difficult to delay that project last year. But we didn't just put that project on the shelf, waiting for better markets, better lower prices," Løseth said this week.

"We've been very actively working to look at everything we can to improve the project. The project team is doing a really good job on that."

Equinor is moving ahead later this year with exploration drilling around Bay du Nord, which is made up of five oil discoveries. 

Løseth said progress is being made but the company isn't escaping a difficult situation. 

"With cost increases and inflation still going up, we're trying to fight that, in a way, and make it work," he said.

"This happens to projects. It happened in the past. It'll probably happen for projects in the future as well. We have experience with actually taking our projects, looking at them again and doing everything we can to improve."

He said the Norwegian energy giant has a track record of doing exactly that, and he's confident the Bay du Nord project can be improved upon. However, he said he isn't making any promises.

But one question remains.

"The question is, can we improve it enough so that's it's globally competitive and it gets the funding it should have," said Løseth.

"I'd say we're on track with that three years. We don't have concrete dates to offer right now. If we can do it sooner, we'll do it sooner but we know it will take some time."

Premier Andrew Furey's support for the project hasn't wavered in the last year. On Tuesday he called Bay du Nord "necessary" and said Newfoundland and Labrador is "all in on oil and gas" for decades to come. 

Løseth said it's good to have the support from the province and it's important to the company.

"We don't see that support everywhere we go. So I'm encouraged by that," he said.

"Personally, I'm very excited about this project and I want it to come through. We're working for that every day and I'm going to fight for this project. Ultimately, it needs to be good enough, of course, and it needs to compete in the global portfolio."

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