In a statement from Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, he confirmed the Canadian government is open for discussion as to the utilization of its 8.5% stake in the Hibernia offshore oil project.

Last Tuesday, Flaherty told reporters in Edmonton, "Certainly we're open to discussion about Hibernia." He did decline to say when the government might sell its stake and how much would the sale able to raise.

Aside from the Canadian government, the other partners participating in the Hibernia offshore oil project include Suncor Energy Inc, which holds a 20% stake, Exxon Mobil Corp, which owns a 33.125%, Chevron Corp with a 26.875% share, Murphy Oil Corp with 6.5% and Statoil owning 5% of the company.

The Hibernia offshore oil project is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, locared about 315 km east southeast of St. John's Newfoundland in Canada. It is currently the largest oil platform in the world in operation. According to latest estimates from the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, the total oil field production was 704 million barrels of oil as of August 2010. 

In a previous report in CBC News back in 2011, the three leaders of the major federal parties were agreeable to the sale of the Canadian government's minority shareholdings in the project. The sale would be made to Newfoundland and Labrador, according to the plan. 

Jim Flaherty's latest remarks though were with unusual candor. He said, "There's a lot of work done on that... That's a good question (chuckle). We've done a lot of work on that and there's more to be said about that before being too long." 

This though, was not a purely business decision as there are politcial considerations at play. One of the sore points was the 2004 sale of Petro-Canada, which had stranded minority owners as this was not one of the core functions of federal governments.