Cenovus removes Terra Nova FPSO from company's report of future plans

Cenovus Energy has removed the Terra Nova FPSO from its corporate guidance report for 2023, adding another layer of uncertainty around the future of the oil production project.

The project was absent from the energy corporation's report, which shows analysts and industry shareholders expected revenues, earnings and operational goals for upcoming quarters. The report says the vessel remains dockedin Trinity Bay as it undergoes maintenance to extend its life cycle.

"We are taking a conservative view and have removed Terra Nova volumes from our 2023 guidance," Cenovus CEO Alex Pourbaix saidWednesday.

The change means Cenovus expects to produce about 10,000 fewer barrels of oil a day in the coming months.

The refit of the Terra Nova FPSO a floating production, storage and offloading vessel isa project largelyfinanced by public money and a break on future oil royalties. It operates inone of the four mature oil fields off of the coast of Newfoundland, along with Hibernia, Hebron and the West White Rose project.

Terra Novahasn't produced oil since late 2019, when audits by insurers andoffshore regulators uncovered a long list of safety concerns. The vessel was sent to Spain for a seven-month overhaul, which dragged on for 13 months, and was expected to resume production between April and June.

Earlier this month CBC News reported that Suncor, which operates the project, wasno longer providing timelines of when production could continue.

Norrie Ramsay, Cenovus'sexecutivevice-president of major projects andoffshore, said questions about the future of the project are best addressed to Suncor.

"The operator has informed us that they've delayed taking the facility back offshore. We're continuing some maintenance work at Bull Arm," Ramsay said."I'd refer you to operator in this case."

In an emailed statement to CBC News, a spokesperson forSuncor said the company iscontinuingto "work through maintenance and commissioning activities to ensure a safe and reliable restart" and still evaluating anyimpacts to the schedule.

West White Rose progressing well

Ramsay did say another production project, the West White Rosebased in Argentia, is moving forward.

"We're actually very excited about it. There's two big pieces of work on West White Rose at the moment," he said.

The West White Rose is a $3.2-billion expansion project for the White Rose offshore oil field, which includes a gravity-based wellhead platform that will be attached to the existing FPSOin Argentia.

Ramsay said a concrete pour to complete the bulk is a 60-day processandCenovus is about one-third of the way through it.

Construction on the integrated topsides facility connected to the project has also been completed in Texas, Ramsay said.

"We have literally a thousand people on three shifts working in Argentia," he said. "The project's coming together well, but there's obviously a long way to go before we finally see safe production."

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