Subsea Facilities: Challenges and Interfaces in Jeanne d'Arc Basin Environmental Conditions

Abstract

The Terra Nova project is the first subsea development on the Grand Banks area off the east coast of Canada. The area presents a unique set of challenges such as harsh environmental conditions, risk of damage from icebergs and little established infrastructure. To meet these challenges, an alliance approach was established, creating an ideal environment for an integrated team which produced extremely valuable results through optimization across the areas of FPSO, subsea and subsurface. Concurrent with Design Basis development, field development activities were commenced. This included determination of bottom hole location of the wells, seabed facilities including positions and types of manifolds/templates, flowline choice and protection of seabed facilities to minimize risk from iceberg scour.