Hibernia Management and Development Company (HMDC) has reported a high potential near miss on the Hibernia platform offshore Canada.
The shareholders of HMDC are: ExxonMobil Canada (33.125%), Chevron Canada Resources (26.875%), Suncor (20%), Canada Hibernia Holding Corporation (8.5%), Murphy Oil (6.5%) and Statoil Canada (5%).
According to Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, an agency responsible for the regulatory oversight of petroleum-related activities in the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador offshore area, on March 31, 2016, an employee on level U09 of the platform opened the elevator shaft door and discovered that the elevator car was not there.
C-NLOPB stated that, following the incident, the locking mechanisms on all elevators on the platform were function tested. The U-shaft elevator will remain out of service until it is inspected by the vendor. HMDC is conducting an internal investigation, C-NLOPB said.
Hibernia is an oil field in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately 315 kilometres east-southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, in 80 m of water.
The completed platform was towed to the Hibernia oil field and positioned on the ocean floor in June of 1997, and began producing oil on November 17, 1997. The platform is 224 metres high, and it has three separate components, topsides, gravity base structure and offshore loading system (OLS).