Cenovus celebrates final stages of construction of West White Rose gravity-based structure
The Alberta-based company hopes to start drilling in fall 2025
The once-stalled West White Rose offshore oil project caught a new wind this week, with a self-congratulatory press conference attended by Andrew Furey, the outgoing Newfoundland and Labrador premier who championed it.
Jon McKenzie, CEO of Calgary-based energy company Cenovus, said the event in Argentia Tuesday celebrated a "milestone in the progress of the West White Rose project."
The gravity-based concrete drilling rig for the West White Rose oil extension is nearly complete, and McKenzie says it'll be floated out to the oil field in the Grand Banks next month.
The topside of the structure will be brought in from Texas so the full rig can be assembled in July. The overall size of the structure measures in at 146 metres and 201,000 tonnes, according to Cenovus.
The company plans to start drilling this fall and get to first oil a few months into 2026, with an expected production of 80,000 barrels of oil per day by 2028.
It hasn't been a smooth ride getting to this point.
The White Rose project was stalled due to the pandemic in 2020, but N.L. Premier Andrew Furey has since doubled down on oil production despite the general shift towards green energy.
In that same year, the province gave Cenovus-owned Husky Energy a lifeline in the form of $41.5 million— half the total cost.
"Environmental ideology in our way? No problem," Furey boasted in a speech to media and business executives Tuesday.
"This is the product Newfoundland and Labrador needs to celebrate... That's why my government just recently announced in our budget more support for oil and gas."
Furey said the province's $90 million over three years will "encourage offshore exploration so we can find that next big reserve."
According to Furey, the completed extension will create 250 permanent jobs, and other "spin-off" jobs.
WATCH | The CBC's Abby Cole reports from Argentia:
Two-hundred skilled trades workers are onsite in Argentia currently, says Trades N.L. labour relations director Corey Parsons, and he's proud of that.
"I came here three years ago when the project resumed after the shut-down," Parsons said in an interview. "It's one of the proudest things I've done in my life, [to] come see first-hand the men and women that show up wearing work boots."
"The quality of it… the safety record here, that's something Newfoundland and Labrador trade workers are known for around the world," said Parsons.
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With files from Abby Cole and Patrick Butler