(Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) announced yesterday that the ExxonMobil-led Hibernia will pay CDN$400,000 in fines as the result of a 2019 oil spill on the Hibernia platform.
The spill happened on July 17, 2019, when approximately 12,000 litres of crude oil mixed with water was released from the platform into the Atlantic Ocean. Hibernia Management and Development Company Ltd. said at the time the discharge was likely caused by a sensor issue and called it an isolated incident.
Hibernia faced three charges from the C-NLOPB under the Canada-Newfoundland Atlantic Accord Implementation Act.
The C-NLOPB completed a thorough investigation of the spill, which found Hibernia didn’t ensure work that was likely to cause pollution was stopped immediately. An agreed statement of fact said the discharge was reported to the C-NLOPB at 10:38 a.m. on July 17, but the platform remained in production until 5:13 p.m. that evening.
The investigation also found Hibernia failed to manage the associated risk for an identified hazard and also charged the corporation for the spill itself.
Hibernia was ordered to pay $310,000 into the C-NLOPB’s environmental damages fund, along with a $90,000 fine imposed by the Accord Implementation Act.
The corporation was also fined $28,000 by the C-NLOPB in 2022 in relation to a separate spill in August 2019. That spill released an estimated 2,200 litres of oil into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Hibernia offshore oil field is owned jointly by ExxonMobil Canada (33.125%), Chevron Canada Resources (26.875%), Suncor (20%), Canada Hibernia Holding Corporation (8.5%; subsidiary of CDEV), Murphy Oil (6.5%) and StatoilHydro Canada Ltd (5%).
