Hibernia (oil field)
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(Petro-Canada)
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Hibernia is the name of a petroleum field located in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately 315 kilometres southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
The production platform Hibernia is the world's largest oil platform and consists of a 37,000 t integrated topsides facility mounted on a 600,000 t gravity base structure. The platform was towed to its final site and 450,000 t of solid ballast was added to secure it in place. Inside the gravity base structure are storage tanks for 1.3 million bbl of crude oil.
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[edit] Exploration Pre-Development
Exploration drilling to map the field began in the 1960s and continued into the 1980s, with the loss of the Ocean Ranger mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) in the process. In the mid-1980s, a new federal Conservative administration under Brian Mulroney pledged that the Crown corporation Petro-Canada (which has since been privatized) would be a lead player in creating a commercially viable offshore development on the Hibernia field. Hibernia would become one of a series of regional "mega-projects" that Mulroney's government started across Canada during this time.
[edit] 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 Hibernia Holding Corporation, the Hibernia development to construct the MODU began in the early 1990s. Partner companies in addition to Petro Canada and CHHC included Mobil Oil (now ExxonMobil), Chevron, Murphy Oil and Norsk Hydro.
As the Hibernia field was located in an extremely 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 80 metres in depth with its topsides extending approximately 50 metres 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 and the remainder of the void space is filled with magnetite ballast with the entire structure weighing in at 1.2 million tons. 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 entire MODU was towed out to the actual Hibernia field.
Production commenced on November 17, 1997 and Hibernia has proven to be one of the more successful oil wells in Canada. A dedicated fleet of shuttle tankers continuously operates between the MODU and an onshore storage terminal adjacent to an oil refinery at Come By Chance.
The MODU always has at least one logistics support vessel in attendance, which shuttle supplies and for on-station emergency support. These support vessels are also tasked during the spring and summer months to tow small and medium-sized ice bergs which might collide with the platform, even though the GBS is supposedly engineered to withstand such a hit. The Hibernia MODU is crewed by approximately 100 personnel, all of whom work in rotating 3-week long shifts and are flown to the MODU by helicopters operated by Cougar Helicopters.
