Husky Energy Inc. used remotely operated vehicles to investigate the cause of a Nov. 16 oil leak at White Rose field offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, where production had been shut in the previous day because of severe weather.
The company said all production wells were secure and believed the leak occurred at a subsea flowline.
It said on Nov. 19 that no additional oil had been detected on the surface since the original leak, which the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board called a “batch spill.”
The incident caused no injuries. The C-NLOPB said surveillance flights and inspection by a support vessel indicated no harm to wildlife or seabirds.
In September, White Rose produced an average 23,640 b/d of oil and 122.5 MMcfd of gas through the Sea Rose floating, production, storage, and offloading vessel.
The C-NLOPD said operations at other facilities in its area—which include Hibernia, Hebron, and Tierra Nova fields—would not resume “until the C-NLOPB has determined that it is safe to do so.”
Its initial estimate of the spill size was 1,570 bbl.
The board said the storm that forced the shut-ins “was one of the worst this region has seen offshore since the Ocean Ranger disaster in 1982.”
In that incident, 84 workers perished when the Ocean Drilling & Exploration Co. semisubmersible rig sank on an exploratory location after reporting 100-knot winds and 65-ft waves.
