The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that Newfoundland is trying for an offshore oil comeback as Cenovus's West White Rose expansion gets set to start pumping next year. The Post's Andrew Rankin writes, however, some are warning that Canada's only offshore oil region is headed for a steep decline without approvals for new projects such as the proposed Bay du Nord project. The province's four producing offshore fields are two-thirds depleted, said Wade Locke, an economist in the province who has followed the industry for decades, so the medium-term outlook is stark. For example, production in Hibernia is expected to fall to about 50,000 barrels a day by 2030 from a peak of roughly 220,000 barrels in the early 2000s. "If you look at the projects we know about today, we're in the declining phase," Mr. Locke said. "The only one close to being developed in a reasonable time frame is Bay du Nord. The rest are still a long way off." Bay du Nord, a deepwater development in the Flemish basin about 500 kilometres east of St. John's, is now in its final engineering and costing stage. The project is backed by Norway's Equinor ASA, with BP PLC as a partner. Equinor has not yet made a final investment decision.