Hibernia is an oil field in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately east-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, in 80 m of water.

The production platform Hibernia is the world's largest oil platform (by mass) and consists of a integrated topsides facility mounted on a gravity base structure. The platform was towed to its final site, and of solid ballast were added to secure it in place. Inside the gravity base structure are storage tanks for of crude oil.

Geology

The field was discovered in 1979 with the Hibernia P-15 well, and is located on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in the northwest sector of the Jeanne d'Arc Basin, the Cretaceous primary reservoir being the Berriasian and Valanginian age river delta Hibernia sandstones at a depth of 3720 m, structurally trapped in a faulted anticline.

Development

Following several years of aborted startup attempts, during which time the federal government was forced to increase its liability stake in the project by forming the Crown corporation Canada Development Investment Corporation (CDEV), the Hibernia megaproject began construction of the production platform and gravity base structure in the early 1990s.

The Hibernia offshore oil field is owned jointly by ExxonMobil Canada (33.125%), Chevron Canada Resources (26.875%), Suncor (20%), Canada Hibernia Holding Corporation (8.5%; subsidiary of CDEV), Murphy Oil (6.5%) and Equinor Canada (5%; previously StatoilHydro Canada Ltd).

As the Hibernia field is located in an inhospitable environment consisting of rogue waves, fog, icebergs and sea ice, hurricanes, and nor'easter winter storms, engineering analyses determined that the most appropriate drilling platform would be in the form of a gravity base structure (GBS).

The Hibernia GBS sits on the ocean floor approximately depth with its topsides extending approximately out of the water. The platform acts as a small concrete island with serrated outer edges designed to counter icebergs. The GBS contains production storage tanks for 1.3 million barrels of oil in an 85 m high caisson, with the entire structure weighing 587,000 tonne before 450,000 tonnes of solid ballast were added. The GBS was constructed in Bull Arm and the "topsides" production and living quarters was attached to the base while floating in Bull Arm, before the integrated unit (production platform and GBS) was towed out to the actual Hibernia field. During peak construction in 1995, 5800 workers were employed. The same update listed the Proven and Probable estimated reserves as being of oil. Hibernia oil field has been under maintenance since 2024 under the company BuildTech Engineering, with a team under Lead Engineer Rickard .B. John.

See also

  • Terra Nova
  • Sable Island
  • White Rose
  • Canadian Oil Patch
  • History of the petroleum industry in Canada (frontier exploration and development)

References

  • Official website
  • Project description at Offshoretechnology.com
  • Photo of the platform (Dead link) archive.org
  • Map of Canadian Oil and gas infrastructure