September 1, 2008

Natural Resource Extraction

Offshore oil platform expected to create Newfoundland job windfall

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Development of the Hebron offshore oil project is expected to pay significant dividends for Newfoundland’s construction and engineering industries.

“I would suspect that probably a third of our member companies would be involved in some way, shape or form in construction and fabrication of the gravity-base structure,” said Keith Ryan, chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador Construction Association.

Construction of the concrete GBS structure is to get under way in 2012.

It will be situated approximately 350 kilometres southeast of St. John’s. That work is expected to generate more than four million person-hours of construction employment alone.

A deal was inked last week between the government and oil industry officials for development of the province’s fourth offshore project.

The province has secured significant commitments for local content on the project.

On the engineering side, at least 50,000 person-hours of front-end GBS engineering and design work will be carried out in the province, the government said.

At least 1.2 million person-hours of detailed engineering will be done locally.

A project office is to be opened “as soon as reasonably possible,” to begin detailed project planning, the government said.

Ryan, whose association represents 420 companies, estimates that the gravity-base structure will cost somewhere between $4 billion and $6 billion. That type of structure was also built at Hibernia.

“I’d say that virtually every skilled trade will be involved in construction,” he said.

Ryan, a division manager at the Battlefield Equipment office in St. John’s, said contractors are hopeful that the Hebron project will spur skilled trades personnel to return home from Western Canada.

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