Canada's East Coast offshore is now entering a period of steady expansion and development, says Calgary-based Petro-Canada Ltd.
Hibernia topsides is shown last February being moved prior to mating with its gravity base structure (GBS), which is shown undergoing submergence tests
Near the Hibernia construction site at Bull Arm, Newf.Petro-Canada Pres. Jim Stanford said the Hibernia and Terra Nova oil fields are the first of many projects in which the company will participate on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland (OGJ, May 12, 1997, p. 22).
Elsewhere off eastern Canada, plans for natural gas development at Sable Island off Nova Scotia are moving ahead with a gas purchase deal and several project contracts.
Nova Scotia Power, a provincial utility, has signed an agreement to buy 13% of the project's gas output. The utility said the gas will be used as feedstock at generating stations now burning imported bunker oil.
The Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP) members said a pipelay alliance contract has been awarded to Allseas Marine Services, Netherlands. The $250-270 million (Canadian) contract will be executed by a new company to be formed by Allseas in Canada.
SOEP also let a $13 million contract to a joint venture of MM Industra of Dartmouth, N.S., and Brown & Root, Houston, for fabrication of early jackets to support platform structures.
In addition, new exploration and development activity is proceeding with two projects off Newfoundland.
Amoco Canada Petroleum Ltd., Petro-Canada, and Norsk Hydro formed a partnership to explore Amoco's West Bonne Bay prospect in the Jeanne d'Arc basin.
In a second project, Mobil Oil Canada Ltd., Chevron Canada Resources Ltd., Petro-Canada, and Norsk Canada Oil and Gas will drill an appraisal well in Hebron field, 25 miles southeast of Hibernia. A discovery well was drilled in the field in 1981.
The 6,890-ft, $17 million delineation well planned for September will evaluate reservoir potential. Current estimates place Hebron potential reserves at 195-700 million bbl of crude.
Grand Banks update
Hibernia is scheduled to begin production in December, and development plans are moving ahead for Terra Nova. It could come on stream in 2000.
Stanford said smaller pools of about 100 million-bbl reserves, such as the Mara and Nautilus fields near Hibernia, are now economic because of advances in production technology such as horizontal drilling. He said there may yet be more big East Coast discoveries.
"We believe one of our core competencies to be the understanding of the geology of the Grand Banks. The knowledge base we have and the understanding of the Grand Banks we have gives us a competitive advantage," he said.
The company will participate in an exploratory test in June in the West Bonne Bay area of the Grand Banks and will be operator for a delineation well in Hebron field on the Grand Banks in September.
Stafford said that even if West Texas intermediate crude drops to $18.50 (U.S.)/bbl, the company still will earn $12-13 bbl at Hibernia and Terra Nova after production and transportation costs.
Sable contracts
The pipelay contract award is conditional on regulatory approval and a final decision later this year by the Sable interest holders on whether the project will go ahead.
Allseas has committed the pipelay vessel Solitaire and trenching vessel Trenchsetter to the project. The contract includes engineering, procurement, installation, and testing/commissioning of all offshore pipelines in 1999.
The Solitaire is a new vessel and would work in the North Sea prior to coming to Nova Scotia for the 1999 pipelaying season.
Work must begin now on the jackets for the Thebaud and Venture fields at Sable Island to permit drilling operations to begin in April 1998 and production to begin from the Scotian shelf by November 1999.
The two jackets will be prefabricated at Brown & Root's Houston yard and transported to MM Industra's Dartmouth yard for assembly.
Contract scope includes construction, construction engineering, procurement and fabrication, loadout, and seafastening of the Thebaud wellhead and Venture jackets and piles.
West Bonne Bay
The West Bonne Bay prospect is located on exploration license 1022, about 9 miles northeast of Terra Nova oil field and 25 miles southeast of Hibernia oil field. Petro-Canada and Norsk Hydro (which recently established a Canadian office) each will take a 10% ownership interest in the property. Amoco will retain 80%.
Amoco will be operator for a drilling program scheduled to begin early in June. Amoco said the West Bonne Bay property has potential reserves of as much as 300 million bbl of crude oil.
The well will be drilled to a projected depth of 14,108 ft to targets in the Hibernia and Jeanne d'Arc formations using the Bill Shoemaker semisubmersible unit under contract from the Sedco-Forex division of Schlumberger Canada Ltd.
Copyright 1997 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
