Lasmo Nova Scotia Ltd. has started Canada's first commercial offshore hydrocarbon production.
Flow of 14,000 b/d of oil began June 5 from its Cohasset/Panuke development project in the Atlantic Ocean, about 155 miles east-southeast of Halifax N.S. (OGJ, Jan. 20, p. 18).
Lasmo called the operation "a major step" in industry's 30 year campaign to establish commercial oil production from Canada's offshore areas.
The company operates the project and holds a 50% interest, as does its partner, Nova Scotia Resources Ltd., a provincial corporation based in Halifax.
Development covers two offshore fields, Cohasset and Panuke, which hold recoverable reserves of about 50 million bbl of light, high quality oil. Lasmo expects to produce the oil during a 6 year period, after which all facilities will be removed and the seabed restored.
Current production is from Panuke field only with oil processed on the Rowan Gorilla III jack up, converted from a drilling rig to a drilling/production unit. Oil is then loaded into the Nordic Apollo storage tanker for shipment to North American refineries by the Nordic Challenger shuttle tanker.
Throughout production the 127,300 dwt storage tanker will remain connected to a catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) buoy, which is linked to the production rig by a flexible flow line.
About 500,000 bbl of oil will be offloaded into the 67,000 dwt shuttle tanker, which will visit the storage vessel every 2 weeks.
WHAT'S PLANNED
In 1993 Rowan Gorilla III will begin development drilling in Cohasset field, yielding an expected rise in total production to about 40,000 b/d. Later a third field, Balmoral, a small satellite 1.86 miles northeast of existing facilities, will be tied into Cohasset by subsea pipeline.
The Cohasset project will produce during summer months to avoid the threat of icebergs.
Two 2,000 ton steel wellhead jackets have been installed -one in Cohasset and one in Panuke.
Rowan Gorilla III has drilled three development wells in Panuke field, and plans call for two more wells there.
When those are complete the rig will move to Cohasset, which will be its permanent location, where it will drill eight development wells.
After the 1992 production season, Panuke will be remotely operated. Its oil will flow through a flexible subsea pipeline to the production jack up in Cohasset field.
Plans include one development well directionally drilled to Balmoral and a wildcat to be directionally drilled southeast of Cohasset field.
Capital investment to date on the project is about $260 million (Canadian), of which almost 40% has been spent in Nova Scotia and more than 50% in Canada.
Because of the value of the fishing industry to Nova Scotia, Lasmo agreed to allow fishing representatives to be stationed on the Rowan Gorilla III to monitor activities. A joint committee, established as a forum for discussion, has created a compensation plan to provide settlement of attributable damage claims.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
