SUNCOR Energy's highly troubled Terra Nova life extension oil project in Canada will not be on stream until at least the end of 2023, some 14 months behind schedule, raising serious questions about the operator's contracting strategy and its use of state funds. Roger Jenkins, chief executive of US-based field partner Murphy Oil, told analysts last week: "We feel that the project will flow at year-end," while stressing that "it is not going to be a significant part of our [production] volumes, if it does not". Terra Nova's floating production, storage and offloading vessel was demobilised from its location offshore Newfoundland in 2019, ready for it to be refurbished as part of Suncor's asset life extension (ALE) project. It was moored in the province's coastal waters, awaiting a decision on whether the US$500 million ALE scheme would go ahead. In 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic, Suncor secured financial aid of C$500 million (about US$367 million at current exchange rates) - with no claw-back mechanism - from Canada's authorities to stop the field partners from scrapping the 70 million-barrel project, which involves new subsea wells and the revamped FPSO. As part of the deal, some oil companies exited the asset, while others - Suncor, Murphy and Cenovus - remained.
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