Canada’s oil and gas firm Husky Energy has approved the West White Rose Project offshore Newfoundland and Labrador.
Husky said on Monday it would use a fixed wellhead platform tied back to the SeaRose floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The platform, which has received regulatory approval, will enable the company to maximize resource recovery, Husky said.
First oil is expected in 2022 and the project is anticipated to achieve a gross peak production rate of approximately 75,000 barrels per day (bbls/day) in 2025, as development wells are drilled and brought online.
“Over the years the Atlantic business has provided some of the strongest returns in the Company’s portfolio and West White Rose is the next chapter,” said CEO Rob Peabody . “This project is of a scale approaching the original White Rose development and is able to use the existing SeaRose FPSO to process and export production.”
“We’ve made significant improvements to the project since it was first considered for sanction, including identifying numerous cost savings, achieving a 30 percent improvement in capital efficiency and increasing the expected peak production rate by 40 percent over our initial estimate,” added Peabody. “Moving forward with this project is a significant milestone for Husky, while creating jobs, royalties and other benefits for Newfoundland and Labrador.”
With the tie-back to the SeaRose, incremental operating costs are expected to be less than $3 per barrel over the first 10 years, further driving down overall operating costs per barrel for the entire White Rose field as the project ramps up.
Husky has a working interest of approximately 70 percent. Project partners are Suncor Energy and Nalcor Energy – Oil and Gas.