Offshore Canada: Equinor commissions BW Offshore for FPSO pre-FEED, ExxonMobil begins dropped object investigation
BW Offshore inks pre-FEED contract with Equinor Canada
Equinor Canada awarded BW Offshore the pre-FEED study for the Bay du Nord FPSO project on Jan. 22.
The development will encompass several oil discoveries in the frontier Flemish Pass Basin, which is about 500 km northeast of St. John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Equinor made its breakthrough discovery in 2013, followed by others in 2014, 2016 and 2020.
The Bay du Nord field is about 1,170 m deep, while Cappahayden and Cambriol in adjacent exploration license 1156 are in 650 m water.
Bay du Nord will be the first to be developed using an FPSO, also designed for later tiebacks of nearby fields and future discoveries.
Investigation begins for fallen equipment on Hebron platform
Closer to the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin, ExxonMobil Canada Properties (EMCP) notified the Canada Newfoundland & Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) of an incident onboard the Hebron field platform.
During a winter storm on Jan. 5, a piece of flashing weighing 2.5 kg was found to have fallen 18 m from a stair tower to a walkway.
ExxonMobil has performed pre-adverse weather checks the day before, prior to the storm’s arrival, with no abnormalities noted.
Although no personnel were present in the area when the object fell, due to its weight and the distance traveled, there could have been fatality, C-NLOPB reported Jan. 9, based on the Dropped Objects Prevention Scheme calculator.
EMCP has since begun investigating the cause of the incident.
