Exxon Inaugurates 150,000 BPD Offshore Field In Canada

Exxon Mobil inaugurated the Hebron field in Canada’s Newfoundland this week, just as OPEC gears up to announce extended cuts at its quarterly conference in Vienna at the end of the month, according to a new report by Bloomberg.

The field will produce 150,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak – filling a supertanker worth of oil every couple of weeks. Exxon owns a 35.5 percent of shares in Hebron and Chevron, Suncor, Statoil and Nalcor hold stakes as well.

"I'd like to acknowledge the co-venturers and the operator, ExxonMobil Canada for bringing this project on line safely and ahead of schedule," Steve Williams, Suncor president and chief executive officer said in an official statement. "Hebron is a significant addition to our profitable offshore portfolio. It maintains Suncor's position as the only company with ownership in all major producing assets off the East Coast of Canada.”

The offshore field sits 350 kilometers away from St. John’s the capital city of the province.

Canada, along with its southern neighbor, is famously not part of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which has systematically reduced its output since the beginning of the year. A majority of Canadian crude is bought by the United States and transferred through a network of pipelines linking the two countries.

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Mexico is another key crude supplier for the U.S., but this non-OPEC Latin country is working with OPEC to end the oil supply glut, although its contributions are small.

The bloc is expected to extend the output reduction agreement past March, with some commentators speculating that new nations could become involved, causing the total cuts to dig deeper. New shale output from Canada and the U.S. works against the bloc’s efforts, causing three years of low oil prices to persist.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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