Hibernia is an oil field in the

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

, approximately east-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, in 80 m of water.Hurley, T.J., Kreisa, R.D., Taylor, G.G., and Yates, W.R.L., 1992, The Reservoir Geology and Geophysics of the Hibernia Field, Offshore Newfoundland, in ''Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade, 1978-1988'', AAPG Memoir 54, Halbouty, M.T., editor, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, The production platform ''Hibernia'' is the world's largest oil platform (by weight) and consists of a integrated topsides facility mounted on a

gravity base structure A gravity-based structure (GBS) is a support structure held in place by gravity, most notably offshore oil platforms. These structures are often constructed in fjords due to their protected area and sufficient depth. Offshore oil platforms Pri ...

. 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 The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordf ...

in the northwest sector of the Jeanne d'Arc Basin, the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

primary

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

being the Berriasian and

Valanginian In the geologic timescale, the Valanginian is an age or stage of the Early or Lower Cretaceous. It spans between 139.8 ± 3.0 Ma and 132.9 ± 2.0 Ma (million years ago). The Valanginian Stage succeeds the Berriasian Stage of the Lower Cretace ...

age

river delta A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more ra ...

Hibernia

sandstones Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) b ...

at a depth of 3720 m, structurally trapped in a faulted

anticline In structural geology, an anticline is a type of fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest beds at its core, whereas a syncline is the inverse of an anticline. A typical anticline is convex up in which the hinge or crest is the ...

. A secondary reservoir consists of the

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is precede ...

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0 ...

age Ben Nevis/Avalon sandstones at a depth of 2345 m. The Hibernia structure is bounded on the west by the north-northeast trending listric Murre Fault and on the northeast by the Nautilus Fault. Late

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

shales,

Kimmeridgian In the geologic timescale, the Kimmeridgian is an age in the Late Jurassic Epoch and a stage in the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 157.3 ± 1.0 Ma and 152.1 ± 0.9 Ma (million years ago). The Kimmeridgian follows the Oxford ...

/ Oxfordian, are the

source rock In petroleum geology, source rock is rock which has generated hydrocarbons or which could generate hydrocarbons. Source rocks are one of the necessary elements of a working petroleum system. They are organic-rich sediments that may have been depo ...

s. Pressure will be maintained via water injection.

Exploration before development

Exploration drilling to map the field began in the 1960s and continued into the 1980s, with the loss of the ''

Ocean Ranger ''Ocean Ranger'' was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982. It was drilling an exploration well on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, east of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil o ...

'' mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) in the process. In the mid-1980s, a new Conservative federal government under Brian Mulroney pledged that then Crown corporation Petro-Canada (now part of

Suncor Energy Suncor Energy (french: Suncor Énergie) is a Canadian integrated energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Suncor Energy was ranked as the 48th-lar ...

) 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.

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 The Canada Development Investment Corporation (CDEV; french: Corporation de développement des investissements du Canada) is a Canadian Crown corporation responsible for managing investments and corporate interests held by the Government of Can ...

(CDEV), the Hibernia megaproject began construction of the production platform and gravity base structure in the early 1990s.Hibernia Milestones
/ref> 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 StatoilHydro Canada Ltd (5%). As the Hibernia field is located in an inhospitable environment consisting of

rogue waves Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, episodic waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are unusually large, unpredictable, and suddenly appearing surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships, even to lar ...

, fog, icebergs and sea ice,

hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

, and

nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below), or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use ...

winter storms, engineering analyses determined that the most appropriate drilling platform would be in the form of a

(GBS).Hibernia Ice Management
/ref> The Hibernia GBS sits on the ocean floor approximately depth with its topsides extending approximately out of the water. The

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

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 The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

before 450,000 tonnes of solid ballast were added.Hibernia Construction
/ref> 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. Production commenced on November 17, 1997. A dedicated fleet of shuttle tankers continuously operates between the platform and an onshore transshipment facility at Whiffen Head, adjacent to the

Come By Chance Refinery Come By Chance Refinery was a crude oil refinery operated by North Atlantic Refining in Come By Chance, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It has a refining capacity of . The plant is undergoing conversion to a biofuel operation. History The ref ...

. During peak construction in 1995, 5800 workers were employed. The development of Hibernia involves a considerable amount of drilling services. As of January 1, 2007, over 50 development wells have been successfully drilled from the platform, including a Canadian record "extended reach drilling" well. The platform always has at least one logistics support vessel in attendance, which shuttle supplies and provides on-station emergency support. These support vessels are also tasked during the spring and summer months to tow small and medium-sized icebergs which might collide with the platform, even though the GBS is engineered to withstand such a hit. The crew consists of 280 people who spend 3 weeks on the platform and three weeks on land, flown to and from the platform by helicopter. The platform has been used to refuel CH-149 Cormorant search and rescue helicopters on long-range missions in the North Atlantic.

Production

The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board listed the total oil field production at as of August 2010. The same update listed the Proven and Probable estimated reserves as being of oil.

References

External links