Norwegian Equinor Advances Bay du Nord Oil Project with Pre-FEED Contracts
Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has started the ball rolling to develop its controversial Bay du Nord oil project off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador by awarding preliminary front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) work to BW Offshore and Altera Infrastructure. The Canadian project, which the operator paused for three years a couple of years ago, is expected to be among the world’s lowest-carbon projects per barrel of oil.
While Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil sector is already seen as one of the lowest-emitting in the country, Bay du Nord, the 12-billion oil project, was approved with the historic requirement to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Like all other oil- and gas-producing provinces, NL implements a price on industrial carbon emissions via its provincial output-based pricing system.
As Equinor’s plan to develop the Bay du Nord project entails an FPSO suitable for the tie-back of adjacent discoveries and new prospects, Salt Ship Design disclosed in September 2022 that it had designed a hull for a harsh environment unit destined for the project. The 2013-made discovery is estimated to hold around 300 million barrels of light, high-quality oil.
Other discoveries followed in 2014, 2016, and 2020. The Bay du Nord discovery lies in waters approximately 1,170 meters deep, whilst these other discoveries are in adjacent exploration license EL1156, Cappahayden and Cambriol, in approximately 650 meters, and are potential tie-ins in a joint project development.
Equinor and its partner, BP, see the opportunity to apply digitalization principles throughout the life of the field to improve the efficiency of the development. Following delays, Equinor received approval from the Canadian government to develop the Bay du Nord project in April 2022.
