IN THE NEWS / Rig Prepared For Nasty Weather
By CHRIS FLANAGAN
Business Editor
The Glomar International semi-submersible oil rig Grand Banks and its crew of mostly Newfoundlanders has begun drilling the Hebron oil field on Grand Banks, reaching a depth of more than 700 metres into the ocean floor in its first four days on the job.
The Glomar Grand Banks is operated by Jean d'Arc Basin Operations, a consortium of four oil companies, Mobil Chevron, Petro-Canada and Norsk Hydro, and has been leased for a year to drill four exploration wells at the Hebron, Nautilus and Riverhead oil fields.
The consortium employs 210 people in St. John's, as many as 100 of whom are on the rig at any one time. When the well was spudded Dec 30, it marked the first time in about a year a semi-submersible was operating off the coast of Newfoundland.
The rig, built two years after the Ocean ranger went down Feb. 15, 1982 and previously employed on the Grand Banks as the Bow Drill 3, is beginning its 12-month stint at one of the roughest times of the year.
“It's not the norm to start (a drilling program) right now but we're fully prepared for the weather conditions,” said Paul MacMillan, supervisor for the operating consortium. “We absolutely understand the weather conditions, we know the weather, we've got good weather forecasts and we know what were going to deal with.”
Drilling was already suspended for about 24 hours, MacMillan said, but added he does not expect to fall behind schedule.
“It was just too bloody windy to run the crane,” he said. “We lost about a day.”
The oil rig has a new crew after changing owners and undergoing a refit at the Friede Goldman Shipyard at Marystown, but the team, made up of about 90 per cent Newfoundlanders, is experienced, MacMillan said.
“There are lots of Newfoundlanders in the industry working all over the world,” said. “Some of them worked back here in the '80s.”
The crew will drill a vertical well to a depth of about 2,250 metres. It will take about 45 days to complete the program, which includes core sampling and data gathering.
The Grand Banks will be joined this summer by the Husky-operated Bill Shoemaker semi-submersible rig, which last worked off Newfoundland in 1997, drilling the West Bonne Bay property for Amoco.
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