Petro-Canada, Calgary, is searching for a floating production system that can be used to develop Terra Nova oil field on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland.
Norm McIntyre, president of Petro-Canada's resources division, told a Canadian seminar the 400 million bbl field can be developed economically only with a floating system. Petro Canada is in touch with several companies that could provide a converted semisubmersible production system.
Waters off eastern Canada are the site of the country's only offshore production, the Lasmo Nova Scotia Ltd.-Nova Scotia Resources Ltd. combine's Cohasset/Panuke oil development on the Scotian Shelf off Nova Scotia. It went on stream June 5, 1992.
In addition, a group led by Mobil Oil Canada Ltd. has a concrete gravity base platform under construction to tap Hibernia oil field on the Grand Banks. The project, estimated to cost more than $5 billion (Canadian) has been plagued by delays and cost overruns (OGJ, May 2, p. 42).
McIntyre said the approach being used to develop Hibernia field will not work for Terra Nova. Upgrading or converting a floater is the only way Terra Nova can be developed commercially without government aid. Building a new floating system would triple time and capital requirements.
Terra Nova will also need streamlined regulatory approval, "realistic royalties," and unitized operation by partners, McIntyre said.
Petro-Canada holds a 49% interest in Terra Nova, considered the next field most likely to be developed off Canada. Other partners are Mobil Canada, Husky Oil Ltd., Gulf Canada Resources Ltd., and Mosbacher Operating Ltd.
Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells said his province must have a fair share of benefits from any development, but he is optimistic that a deal on Terra Nova can be negotiated.
Wells said explorers have identified more than 1.5 billion bbls of oil on the Grand Banks with 40 wildcats and 20 delineation wells.
McIntyre and Wells spoke at a seminar during a biennial petroleum trade show in Calgary.
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