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Husky wouldn’t say how the province helped improve the project’s attractiveness.

Ball said construction would start in Argentia, N.L., this year, employ up to 700 people and provide more than $3 billion in royalties, equity and taxes. Once in operation, the platform will have a staff of 250.

Paul Barnes, manager for Atlantic Canada for the Canadian Association for Petroleum Producers, said West White Rose is the only project moving ahead in the region and will help keep the oil production and construction industries alive.

The latest megaproject, the $14-billion Hebron led by Exxon Mobil Corp., is nearing completion and expected to start producing oil at the end of the year.

No decisions have been made about commercializing recent discoveries in the Flemish Pass, Barnes said.

The provincial government is “certainly recognizing that there is a competitiveness aspect to a lot of things that are happening worldwide these days, especially in the U.S., and that in order for these projects to go ahead they have to set the right business conditions and this project is trying to do exactly that,” Barnes said.

The completion of Hebron created an opening for Husky to move head with West White Rose, Peabody said.

“A lot of the people who were working on Hebron are exactly the type of people we need,” he said.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Oil & Gas Industries Association said Husky’s decision “is exactly what we need right now in Newfoundland and Labrador to bridge the gap to the developments we know are in our future.”