Equinor Canada has outlined some of the changes being made to the massive Bay du Nord project after soaring inflation caused the company to pause its plans for the offshore oil development.
Bay du Nord is situated in the Flemish Pass, approximately 500 km offshore and in waters of about 1,000 metres.
The company is maintaining its commitment to the project which will include a network of subsea tie-ins to other smaller discoveries.
(Map courtesy Equinor.)
That is a different direction from a traditional topsides model.
Equinor Canada’s Tore Løseth says in the one-and-a-half years since the project was put on hold, they’ve come up with a different approach to development of something he calls the province’s next super project.
“We will start smaller,” says Løseth. “We will start with the best discovery, or maybe a couple best discoveries. The other ones will be phased-in later; they can be tied into the infrastructure later so we’re talking about the phased development concept.”
(Rob Strong.)
Long-time oil industry analyst Rob Strong says Equinor is taking a different approach.
He says the traditional approach is to send an operator out who bids on various components, and a development plan is done around that. What Equinor is doing, says Strong, is to start talking to potential contractors up front, so they can integrate their ideas in the early stages.
