The approval Thursday of three new oilsands projects in Alberta was greeted with relief by proponents and disappointment by an environmentalist, although all agreed low oil prices make building any of them unlikely in the near term.

CEO John Festival of Calgary-based BlackPearl Resources says he is relieved after receiving official endorsement for the 80,000-barrel-per-day Blackrod project more than four years after filing an application in May 2012.

The Alberta government has approved three oilsands projects that it says represent about $4 billion of potential investments, though it's unclear whether any of the projects will go ahead.