West White Rose Project

The West White Rose project is an offshore oil field under development in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin, offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

The field development is being restarted by the joint venture partners Cenovus Energy, Suncor Energy and Nalcor Energy. Cenovus is the operator of the field.

The project was about 65% completed when the partners decided to restart the field development in May 2022, after it was suspended for more than two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The West White Rose project is expected to produce its first oil in the first half of 2026 and is anticipated to have a production capacity of up to 80,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Estimated to contain approximately 115 million barrels of oil, the field is expected to increase the production life of the White Rose project by 14 years. Discovered in 1984, the White Rose field started production in 2005.

The West White Rose project is part of the White Rose expansion project that also includes the development of two other satellite fields, the North Amethyst and the South White Rose, which commenced production in 2010 and 2015, respectively.

Location and field details

The West White Rose oil field project is located in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin, approximately 350km east of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The water depth in the area is approximately 120m.

The field lies on the eastern edge of the main White Rose field that is spread over approximately 40km2 of area.

West White Rose development background

Cenovus (formerly Husky) revealed plans to develop the West White Rose field in October 2013, through a fixed wellhead platform tied back to the existing production vessel.

The project development was sanctioned in 2017 and construction work was commenced in the same year.

However, major construction work on the project was suspended in March 2020, following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The project was placed under review by the joint venture partners in September of the same year.

Later, the project partners decided to restart the field development after reaching an agreement with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador over the amended royalty structure, which ensured the protection to the economics of the project against low oil prices.

In September 2021, Cenovus Energy signed an agreement with Suncor to restructure its ownership in the West White Rose project, once a positive decision is made on restarting the project.

Following the announcement of a restart decision, Suncor increased its stake in the West White Rose project from 26.1% to 38.6%, while Cenovus reduced its stake to 56.375% from 68.875%. Nalcor owns the remaining 5% stake in the field.

West White Rose project development details

The West White Rose field development will include the installation of a fixed drilling platform supported by a concrete gravity structure (CGS) and integrated topsides weighing 25,000 tonnes. With an overall height of 145m, the CGS will have a base diameter of 122m and will weigh 210,000 tonnes.

The topsides comprise a living quarters, facilities services block, a flare boom, a helideck, two lifeboat stations, drilling floor and drilling substructures.

The fixed drilling platform will be tied back to the SeaRose floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) utilising the subsea infrastructure. The North Amethyst and the South White Rose satellite fields are also developed as tiebacks to the SeaRose FPSO.

Contractors involved

SNC-Lavalin- Dragados-Pennecon General Partnership (SDP) was contracted to build the CGS for the fixed drilling platform of the West White Rose project.

Kiewit was awarded a contract for fabrication, construction and integration of the topsides for the project.

TechnipFMC was awarded an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract by Husky Energy for the project in August 2017. The contract included the supply and installation of subsea equipment consisting of tie-in manifolds, flexible flowlines, and control umbilicals.

Van Oord was selected to deliver offshore installation works for the oil field development project in October 2018. The scope of work covered seabed preparation, ballasting activities, flowline protection, and scour protection.

MHWirth, a company owned by Akastor, was subcontracted to provide a drilling package comprising equipment, engineering and services for the project.

Coreworx was engaged to provide interface management software to facilitate collaboration between contractors working on the project.

Aqua-Chem was the certifying authority for the West White Rose project.