COOGER-NL 2025

Over the decades, several well sites for extraction of oil and gas have been developed, exploited and decommissioned off the northeastern coast of Newfoundland. Exploration and development of new sites continues, with both active extraction and approved future projects. The approach to decommissioning wells has changed over time, but the likelihood of leakage or residual contamination of sediments has not been well characterized. Both of these processes have the potential to impact different components of the ecosystem, both in the sediments and water column. This mission aims to take a multi-disciplinary approach to measuring oil and gas impacts around decommissioned well sites and compare them to control locations. We also aim to collect samples as close to active sites as possible and include sampling of the future production sites in the Bay du Nord region. Recognizing that microplastics interact with hydrocarbons, we aim to quantify abundances of microplastics within these areas.