The Sable Project

Profile

The Sable Offshore Energy Project takes its name from the distinctive and famous piece of geography that lies near the producing natural gas fields off Nova Scotia’s coast – Sable Island.  It has been the first offshore natural gas project in Canada and the single largest construction project in the history of Nova Scotia.

The Sable Offshore Energy Project is divided into two “tiers” of offshore development. The first tier was completed in December 1999 and involved the development of the Thebaud, North Triumph, and Venture fields, as well as the construction of three offshore platforms, an onshore gas plant, and an onshore fractionation plant. Gas production commenced on December 31, 1999. Alma, the first Tier II platform, came onstream in late 2003 while production from South Venture, the second field, began late in 2004. In 2006, the compression platform was installed at the Thebaud complex.

The Sable Project is owned by the following companies: ExxonMobil Canada Properties Ltd., Shell Canada Limited, Imperial Oil Resources, Pengrowth Energy Corporation, and Mosbacher Operating Ltd.

The infrastructure, established near Sable Island, will be the basis of their future production efforts,  aimed at providing an alternative energy resource to consumers throughout the Maritimes and the Eastern United States.

Overview of existing facilities

Thebaud Processing Facility: The Thebaud platform is the hub of Sable’s offshore activity. Preliminary processing of the gas from the Thebaud wells, as well as gas from the existing satellite platforms – North Triumph and Venture – is done here, and then sent through the pipeline to the Goldboro Plant in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia.

Venture: The Venture platform, second in size to Thebaud, does preliminary dehydration of the natural gas from its wells, and then transports it to Thebaud for further processing. Production on Venture is controlled by Thebaud.

North Triumph: North Triumph conducts preliminary processing before transporting its natural gas to Thebaud.

Alma Facilities: The Alma platform developed the first Tier 2 field. The platform conducts preliminary processing before transporting its natural gas to Thebaud.

South Venture: Production from the South Venture field began in late 2004. The South Venture platform is similar in design to the existing platforms at North Triumph and Alma and has a 23-meter level water depth.

Goldboro Gas Plant: The Goldboro Gas Plant is located in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week with processing capability at 17 million cubic meters per day.

Point Tupper Fractionation Plant: Natural gas liquids are a by-product of the processing that occurs at the Goldboro Plant. These liquids are separated into propane, butane, and condensate, and then transported via a buried pipeline to Point Tupper.

Having a processing capability of 20,000 barrels of liquid per day—7,000 barrels of propane, 3,000 barrels of butane, 10,000 barrels of condensate—Point Tupper can produce enough propane to fill 63,000 20-pound barbecue tanks, which is enough butane to fill 11 million lighters, and enough condensate to produce all the gasoline needed for a car to drive around the world 515 times. The fractionation plant operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Updates for 2011

The Sable Offshore Energy Project continues to achieve impressive results in the areas of safety and reliability. During 2011, Sable’s onshore plants at Goldboro and Point Tupper passed an important safety milestone, recording more than 10 years without a lost-time incident.

At Sable’s offshore facilities, the workforce extended its record to eight years without a lost-time injury.

In addition to a stellar safety performance, Sable operations have been achieving best-ever reliability levels. During 2011, the Sable Project recorded uptime levels of approximately 97 percent. This means that outside of planned maintenance work, the project’s complex of wells, compression, and processing equipment produced natural gas and liquids almost continuously throughout the year.

The Sable Project contributes directly to the provincial treasury through natural gas royalties. The province estimates that as much as $1.6 billion in direct royalties have been paid by the Sable Project co-venturers as of December 2011.