Husky Energy scores second home run

Petroleum News

Husky Energy, on the heels of a possible bonanza natural gas find in the South China Sea, has notched an oil find offshore Newfoundland that could extend and ramp up its production plans for the White Rose field.

It said June 20 that the latest discovery could add 40 million to 90 million barrels of recoverable crude to the existing 240 million barrel White Rose field, possibly extending the operating life of that project by two years beyond the projected 10 years.

White Rose is owned 72.5 percent by Husky and 27.5 percent by Petro-Canada.

Husky now hopes to get regulatory approval to push reservoir production capacity of its floating production, storage and offloading vessel beyond 110,000 barrels per day (current actual volumes are 85,000 bpd) to125,000 bpd by the end of 2006.

Husky Chief Executive Officer John Lau said further drilling and reservoir evaluation will be conducted to determine the size of the reservoir and its recoverable reserves.

For now, he said the company expects the discovery to significantly stretch the production plateau and field life of White Rose.