EXXONMOBIL’S HEBRON PLATFORM PUMPS FIRST OIL

First oil has been pumped at the $14-billion Hebron offshore oil platform off Newfoundland and Labrador, officials with ExxonMobil Canada announced Tuesday. The company said the platform extracted its first oil on Monday at the Hebron field in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin, located 350 kilometres southeast of St. John’s. “Our goal since the Hebron project was announced in 2008 was to safely achieve first oil in 2017,” company president Carman Mullins said. “Today we delivered on our commitment. Hebron is an engineering and construction marvel and thousands of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians can proudly say they helped design and build the platform.” Built at Bull Arm, the massive gravity- based platform is 230 metres high and weighs 750,000 tonnes. The structure was towed to the drilling site in early June and has begun production ahead of schedule. The Hebron oilfield was discovered in 1980, and it’s estimated it will produce more than 700-million barrels of oil throughout the lifespan of the project.