Terra Nova FPSO returns to site offshore Newfoundland and Labrador

The floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel serving the Terra Nova project offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, in eastern Canada, has returned to its offshore location after four years offline. The vessel is at the centre of the Terra Nova Asset Life Extension (ALE) project.

The FPSO was taken offline in 2019 to undergo CAD 500mn ($369mn) worth of repairs. The repair efforts ran into delays amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting collapse in crude prices, which caused various oil projects to be stalled.

Momentum appeared to be picking up in mid 2021, when the Terra Nova partners reached an agreement to restructure ownership of the project and provide short-term funding to continue development of the ALE plan. The FPSO then left Canadian waters in late 2021 for an overhaul at a shipyard in Spain. It was initially due to return to its location on the Grand Banks, around 350 kilometres southeast of St. John’s, in late 2022 but ran into further delays in Spain.

Terra Nova ran into further uncertainty earlier this year as majority owner Suncor Energy stopped providing a schedule for the FPSO’s return and removed any production from the project from its plans for 2023. Suncor told investors during a quarterly update at the time that the vessel needed additional maintenance before it would be considered safe to return to service.

In its latest quarterly update Suncor mentioned its current plans for Terra Nova without providing many details.