Page 23 - Sphere No.21 (Mar 2008)

SPHERE 21
PHOTOS: INTRNATIONAL ICE PATROL
USKY ENERGY, the
Calgary-based op-
erator of theWhite
Rose oil field on the Grand
Banks, has nine explora-
tion licences off the East
Coast of Canada. They are
all located in an area known
as the Jeanne d’Arc Basin,
where Husky has produced light crude oil from White
Rose since November 2005.
The smallest of the three oilfields in production off New-
foundland, the 250-million-barrel White Rose is expected
to almost double in size with the development of a trio of
nearby satellite fields.The first of these is called NorthAm-
ethyst, and Husky expects to begin development drilling
this summer, pending regulatory approvals. It’s scheduled
to pump the first oil by late 2009 or early 2010.
This summer, Husky is also planning early-stage explo-
ration activity – collecting seismic data for White Rose,
its three satellites and five exploration licences. Seismic
surveys use sound waves to help map what lies beneath
the seabed and to locate potential drilling targets.
Husky is also a partner in the Terra Nova oilfield in
offshore Newfoundland.
Last year, Husky acquired three exploration licences in
offshore Greenland.There, the company holds the majority
ownership interest in two of the licences, and is partnered
with Greenland’s state oil company, Nunaoil AS. In the third
parcel of seabed, known as West Disko, the company has
teamed up with Esso Exploration Greenland and Nunaoil.
HUSKY PULLS ITS WEIGHT
H
Canadian Ice Service and the US National Ice Centre, and uses
a synchronised database to share iceberg sightings.
Computer modelling is also used to forecast where an ice-
berg might drift once it is spotted. The ice patrol deploys
oceanographic buoys to track ocean currents and uses satellites
to measure water temperature. “Over time, we get a real good
picture of what the ocean is doing as it is moving the icebergs
further to the south,” said Commander Rogerson. Sea surface
temperatures, winds, wave heights and currents are punched
into the model to predict where the iceberg will drift.
The system certainly seems to work. Since the Titanic trag-
edy, not a single life has been lost due to a collision with an ice-
berg on vessels in waters covered by the IIP. But why not simply
destroy them? The answer is that blowing up an iceberg is not
as easy as it sounds. According the IIP, a 1,000 pound charge of
conventional explosives would be needed to break up approxi-
mately 70,000 cubic feet of ice (a growler weighing 1,960 tons)
and a hundred such charges would be needed for the destruc-
tion of an average berg.
But even in today’s high-tech era of radar, sensors and sat-
ellites, ships can still hit trouble. In 1993, the year the ice pa-
trol tracked about 1,700 icebergs, three ocean-going ships hit
icebergs and in 2004 a fishing vessel smashed its bow when it
collided with an iceberg head-on.
“The Grand Banks of Newfoundland is one of the most dan-
gerous regions of the world in terms of shipping because you
have oil rigs, icebergs, high seas, low visibility, transatlantic
shipping and fishing vessels,” said the commander “Even with
today’s technology, icebergs remain a threat.”
The human eyeball is a useful back-up
to the electronic sensors. Observers
can sometimes spot an iceberg that
went undetected by radar.