Environment Minister Supports Offshore Oil Exploration, Warns of Emissions Limitations.

The federal minister of environment and climate change, Steven Guilbeault, supports the ongoing search for oil off the coast of Newfoundland despite warnings from environmental groups to stop.

Norwegian energy company Equinor revealed on Monday that approximately next year it will be using a semi-submersible rig to explore the Flemish Pass Basin, about 500 kilometres east of St. John’s.

On Wednesday, Guilbeault projected that oil will still be needed, perhaps to a smaller degree, in a carbon-neutral future.

“Even in the carbon-neutral world in 2050, we will still be using oil. [But] we will be using far less oil than what we’re using now,” Guilbeault said at a funding announcement for Inuit-led climate adaptation and conservation in Nunatsiavut.

“We’re a little above 100 million barrels a day. According to these organizations we will be somewhere between 25 million to 30 million barrels a day in a carbon-neutral world in 2050.”

Concerns have been raised by environmental groups about the effects of increasing offshore oil exploration. Several organizations filed a lawsuit against the federal government in March, demanding to cancel the Bay du Nord project.

On Wednesday, Guilbeault declared that Canada had the greatest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of any G7 country between 2019 and 2021.

Guilbeault added that there will be no more “oil frontiers” since corporations will be limited to drilling in established oil reserves.

“We need to ensure that whatever oil or gas we’re still using in 2050 that the emissions from those operations are captured and sequestered,” said Guilbeault.

“We’re not allowing companies to go in places where there isn’t already oil development happening.”