The government of Nova Scotia has let a contract to Petrofac for a development study on a prospective offshore oil reservoir lying 3,000 m beneath the seabed in 2,000 m of water. The project will be led by Petrofac’s subsea engineering business K W Subsea.
Teams from within Petrofac’s engineering and consulting services business will provide support for the project, including process design, naval architecture, subsea engineering, and cost estimating, as well as a specific drilling scope. The project is expected to be completed early next year.
Blocks have been awarded to Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC, which together have exploration commitments of more than $2 billion (OGJ Online, May 6, 2014). Deepwater drilling is scheduled to begin in 2015 with the start of production estimated after 2025.
Nova Scotia estimates its offshore potential at 120 tcf of natural gas and 8 billion bbl of oil. The area has been compared with offshore northwest Africa because of the water depths.
