The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) approved the Hebron Development Plan.
The approval of the Development Plan now enables ExxonMobil Canada Properties Limited to proceed with development of the Hebron Field, which is estimated to contain 707 million barrels of oil.
This is the fourth major offshore development in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Hebron Asset, which is located in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin some 340 km southeast of St. John’s, was discovered in 1981, two years after the discovery of Hibernia. Situated 9 km north of the Terra Nova Field and 32 km southeast of Hibernia, the Hebron resource is beneath a water depth that ranges from 88 metres to 102 metres.
Hebron’s proposed mode of development is a gravity-based structure (GBS) similar in design to that of Hibernia. The GBS will be constructed at the 2,650-hectare Nalcor Bull Arm Fabrication Site in Trinity Bay. While a portion of the topsides structures will be fabricated at Bull Arm and elsewhere in the province, the largest and most complex module representing some 66% of the total topsides tonnage is proposed to be built outside the country.
GBS construction is scheduled to commence before the end of 2012 with first oil projected to flow by the second quarter of 2017.
[mappress] Subsea World News Staff , June 01, 2012; Image: C-NLOPB