The Hibernia oil platform.
(Newfoundland)

Hibernia is the name of a petroleum field located in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately 300 kilometres southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Download high resolution version (1364x1021, 154 KB)Hibernia Oil Platform From http://www. ... Download high resolution version (1364x1021, 154 KB)Hibernia Oil Platform From http://www. ... Newfoundland (French: Terre-Neuve; Irish: Talamh an Éisc; Latin: Terra Nova) is a large island off the north-east coast of North America, and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. ... Drilling rig in a small oil field Near Sarnia, Ontario, 2001 An oil field is an area with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum (oil) from below ground. ... For other uses, see Atlantic (disambiguation) The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of its surface. ... St. ...

Exploration and 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 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. Oil Exploration is the search by petroleum geologists for hydrocarbon deposits beneath the Earths surface. ... Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... The Ocean Ranger was an offshore exploration oil drilling platform that sank in Canadian waters 315 kilometres (175 nautical miles) southeast from St. ... An oil platform is a large structure used to house workers and machinery needed to drill and then produce oil and natural gas in the ocean. ... Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC) was a Canadian centre-right conservative political party that existed from 1867 to 2003. ... The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney, PC, CC (born March 20, 1939), was the eighteenth Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993. ... In Commonwealth countries a Crown corporation is a state-controlled company or enterprise (a public corporation). ... Petro-Canada is a Canadian oil and gas firm headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. ...

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 (now ChevronTexaco), Murphy Oil and Norsk Hydro. Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), headquartered in Irving, Texas, is an oil producer and distributor formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. ... Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), headquartered in Irving, Texas, is an oil producer and distributor formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. ... This page is about the pattern or symbol called a chevron. ... ChevronTexaco Corporation ( NYSE: CVX) is one of the worlds largest global energy companies. ... Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian oil and energy and integrated aluminium company, headquartered in Oslo. ...

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). Freak waves, also known as rogue waves or monster waves, are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves which can sink even medium-large ships. ... Early morning fog obscures the surface of this lake in Carrollton, Georgia, but the sky remains clear. ... An iceberg (berg is the German word for mountain) is a large piece of ice that has broken off from a glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. ... An icebreaker navigates through young (1 year) sea ice Sea ice is formed from ocean water that freezes. ... This article is about weather phenomena. ... Noreaster is a colloquial term for a storm whose winds come from the northeast, especially in the coastal areas of the northeastern United States. ...

The Hibernia GBS sits on the ocean floor approximately 200 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 gravel 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. An oil platform is a large structure used to house workers and machinery needed to drill and then produce oil and natural gas in the ocean. ... Ballast may mean: track ballast: gravel or cinders forming the railroad or railway track-bed on which sleepers (ties) and track is laid, for proper drainage ships ballast: water, sand, rocks, or bricks used to weight a ship down when it has very little cargo (though water may contain...

Production commenced in 1998 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. 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. 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... An oil well is a laymans term for any perforation through the Earths surface designed to find and release both petroleum oil and gas hydrocarbons. ... A tanker is usually a vehicle carrying large amounts of liquid fuel. ... Come By Chance is a town on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. ...

External link

• Hibernia Project - official website (http://www.hibernia.ca)