Canada’s federal government has returned security deposits that oil majors had paid to drill in Canadian Arctic waters which are currently off limits until 2021, but even if Canada lifts the ban then, companies are unlikely to be eager to drill in harsh-environment challenging waters, analysts say. Canada has returned to oil companies—including majors ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and Imperial Oil—a total of US$327 million (C$430 million) worth of security deposits, or 25 percent of the money they had pledged to spend on exploration in the Beaufort Sea, CBC reports. The Canadian government motivated its decision to return the deposits with the existing ban on drilling in the Arctic offshore which prevents oil firms from drilling. In December 2016, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canadian Arctic waters are indefinitely off limits to new offshore oil and gas licensing, and this ban would be reconsidered every five years through […]