Equinor Canada issued a letter of intent to KBR’s Canadian  entity, KBR Industrial Canada Co., for front-end engineering design (FEED) of topside  infrastructure of the new Bay Du Nord floating production, storage, and  offloading (FPSO) vessel to be sited offshore Newfoundland, Canada.
The agreement also includes an option for continuation of  detailed design and procurement management services through to final completion  of the FPSO, the service provider said in a release Apr. 3. 
The FEED scope comes on the back of pre-FEED engineering  carried out by KBR in 2022 and will further mature the engineering and  execution planning, working towards a final investment decision with first  production expected in the late 2020s.
KBR will execute the work scope jointly with Canadian  sub-contractor Hatch Ltd., a multidisciplinary engineering, project management,  and professional services firm. 
The Bay du Nord project consists of several oil discoveries  in the Flemish Pass basin, some 500 km northeast of St. John’s in Newfoundland  and Labrador, Canada. 
The first discovery was made by Equinor in 2013, followed by  additional discoveries in 2014, 2016, and 2020. Confirmed discoveries in 2020  in adjacent exploration license EL1156 (Cappahayden and Cambriol) are potential  tie-ins in a joint project development. 
The Bay du Nord deepwater oil discovery lies in water depth  of 1,170 m. The new discoveries lie in water depth of about 650 m water depth.
Equinor is license operator with 60% interest. bp Canada holds  the remaining 40%.