The Notley government in Alberta has approved three oilsands projects that it says represent about $4 billion of potential investments, though it’s unclear whether any of the projects will go ahead.
The projects include the Blackpearl Resources’s (T.PXX) Blackrod project, Surmont Energy’s Wildwood project, and Husky Energy’s (T.HSE) Saleski project that together total about 95,000 barrels of potential production.
The approvals, announced Thursday, are the first projects to get the green light since the government established a 100-megatonne greenhouse gas cap on oilsands emissions.
Together the projects are expected to equal about 2.5 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions if built to the design capacity.
The province is still working out how to implement the emissions cap, which it says it put in place to encourage innovation and cost-effective emissions reduction strategies.
The NDP government last approved an oilsands project last October, with Devon Canada’s 9,000-barrel-a-day project near Cold Lake.
