Since the August 17 spill occurred at Hibernia, the C-NLOPB has worked with relevant government agencies in its regulatory oversight of HMDC’s response to the incident. The C-NLOPB again thanks Environment and Climate Change Canada and its Canadian Wildlife Service, the Canadian Coast Guard and Fisheries and Oceans Canada for their timely and invaluable support and assistance in this regard.

The Canadian Coast Guard has confirmed that observations from surveillance flights, as well as satellite imagery and vessel surveillance, indicate the sheen has dissipated. The most recent satellite imagery showed no observable sheen. The vessel Paul A. Sacuta will remain in the field to enable surveillance of any potential areas of interest identified via aerial surveillance or satellite imagery.

Wildlife observations and water sampling are continuing. To date, there have been no reports of affected wildlife. Canadian Wildlife Service officials are actively involved in providing direct advice and support to HMDC and responders in the field on execution of the wildlife monitoring plan.

The C-NLOPB has initiated its formal investigation into the latest incident at Hibernia. As well, C-NLOPB Safety and Operations staff have been on the Hibernia platform since Monday, August 19, where they are focused on compliance monitoring of HMDC’s technical investigation into root cause and causal factors.

Production operations remain shut down on the Hibernia platform and will not resume without the approval of the C-NLOPB and the Certifying Authority.

The C-NLOPB CEO and senior staff will meet with senior officials from the Governments of Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada later this month with a view to discussing what can be done to drive enhanced industry performance through the legislative/regulatory regime.

The C-NLOPB’s investigations continue into three other unauthorized discharges:

• the July 2019 spill at the Hibernia platform;
• the November 2018 spill by Husky Energy at the White Rose Field; and
• the April 2018 discharge of synthetic based mud from the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Transocean Barents.

Decisions on enforcement actions will follow the completion of each of the four, ongoing investigations under the Atlantic Accord Implementation Acts. The C-NLOPB will report publicly as each of these investigations is completed.

Media Contact:

C-NLOPB
Tim Murphy
C-NLOPB Communications
(709) 778-1418
tmurphy@cnlopb.ca

Incident Disclosures 2019