A rocket test by the U.S. Air Force Space Command over the North Atlantic is forcing the evacuation and complete shutdown of Newfoundland’s Hibernia and Terra Nova oil fields at a possible cost of C$250 million.
Despite frantic efforts by Canada, the United States set April 17 to launch a Titan IVB rocket, carrying a sensitive Pentagon satellite, from Cape Canaveral after two earlier postponements for “technical reasons.”
The Air Force has indicated that a 10-ton booster for the rocket will crash within 15 miles of the oil platforms.
Although U.S. officials have insisted the odds of debris hitting the oil fields are one in a trillion, the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board ordered the evacuation of 234 people from the Hibernia rig and 78 people from Terra Nova’s floating production, storage and offloading vessel. The wells will be shut down and the lines drained.
The full turnaround before production can resume will take about two weeks.
Hibernia produces more than 200,000 barrels per day and Terra Nova has pumped up to 165,000 bpd, with the bulk of production from both fields exported to the U.S.
Canadian objections made known
Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan telephoned Vice President Dick Cheney and senior Canadian military officials were in contact with the Space Command to “make known our objections,” said Defense Minister Bill Graham.
Initially, Graham said the test has been postponed indefinitely while a new trajectory was developed, but Space Command officials denied those claims.
They said reports of danger to the oil fields were exaggerated and would only become a concern in the unlikely event of a malfunction or disaster during flight.
That wasn’t good enough for Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, who said the odds of an accident concern him if there is even one chance in 10 trillion of an accident happening.
He demanded more information from the U.S. government and “guarantees from somebody” that lives would not be at risk.
“I don’t think the Americans had thought through how close (the flight path) was to the Hibernia,” he said.
Williams, known for his feisty manner, conceded there was little Canada could do to stop the rocket launch.
But he did say “we’re looking at … whether Canada can physically stop the Americans from doing this.
“Of course, there’s an obvious answer to that: I don’t think we have the resources to do it,” Williams told reporters, without explaining exactly what he had in mind.
“But from an international diplomacy perspective, there’s some important issues here.”
ExxonMobil, the Hibernia operator, and Terra Nova operator Petro-Canada would only say they had been closely following discussions between the Canadian and U.S. governments.
