Hibernia Management & Development Co. Ltd. (HMDC) began restarting oil production from the Hibernia platform offshore Newfoundland and Labrador on Aug. 15, nearly a month after a storage leak forced the joint venture to halt output (OGJ Online, Aug. 13, 2019).
The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board approved the restart of output, which was about 125,000 b/d when shut in on July 17.
A preliminary investigation report by HMDC identified the oil and water interface layer—an oil-water emulsion—in a storage cell as the cause.
HMDC has removed the interface layer from the storage cell and is revising its interface management procedures, the C-NLOPB said.
An estimated 75 bbl of crude leaked form the storage cell. There were no injuries.