Offshore staff
CALGARY, Alberta – The Canadian government has approved Equinor’s proposed $12-billion Bay Du Nord project after an environmental assessment concluded it would not cause significant adverse effects.
The Bay du Nord project is located in the Flemish Pass region, approximately 450 km (280 mi) offshore east-northeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. It includes the development of the Bay du Nord, Bay de Verde, Bay de Verde East and the Baccalieu fields located in the Flemish Pass basin of the Atlantic Ocean offshore Canada.
The water depth around the proposed project area ranges between 1,000 m and 1,200 m (3,280 ft and 3,937 ft), making it Canada’s first remote deepwater project.
The Bay du Nord oil field and the Baccalieu field are estimated to hold mean recoverable resources, ranging between 300 and 600 MMboe (approximately 47.7 MMcm of crude oil).
The proposed development plan includes the drilling of between 10 and 30 wells using five to 10 subsea templates. The drilling program will be carried out over a period of three to five years. The drilling activity is expected to be conducted using either a semisubmersible drilling unit or a drillship.
The subsea templates, including individual satellite wells, will be tied-back using flowlines to an FPSO. The proposed Bay Du Nord FPSO will have the capacity to handle crude oil production, storage and export, gas management, water injection, produced water management and other waste management. The FPSO is expected to have a design life of 30 years and an estimated production capacity between 94,000 and 188,000 b/d of oil. It will also have a crude oil storage capacity ranging between 143,000 m³ and 191,000 m³ (between 0.9 and 1.2 MMbbl).
Equinor and partner Cenovus Energy have not yet made a final investment decision on the project, but Equinor said it welcomed the government's decision. “We now look forward to progressing this key investment in Canada – which has the potential to produce the lowest carbon oil in the country,” Equinor said in a statement.
04/07/2022
