N.L. offshore platform possible: Husky

Husky Energy is considering adding a Hibernia-styleconcrete structure on the White Rose oilfield hundreds of kilometres east of Newfoundland.

"Husky has been looking at a number of development opportunities for its resource base offshore NFLD including a concrete structure,"a company official wrote in an email to CBC News.

"We are very much in the study phase, and it would be premature to tie any development scenario to a particular project at this point in time. No decisions have been made."

The email was written after CBC asked the company for an interview about anewspaper report thatHusky hadbegun engineering work on a Hibernia-style fixed platform to tap its White Rose offshore field.

The article quoted Husky CEO Asim Ghosh as saying a platform would enable the company to expand production by drilling "lots of incremental wells at a very low cost."

According toa Globe and Mail articleDec. 3, Ghosh said the new platform could begin operation as soon as 2016.

Husky is currently pumping oil from White Rose with a floating production, storage and offloading vessel, the SeaRose, about 350 kilometres southeast of St. John's.

Premier Kathy Dunderdale said Thursday that so far the company hasn't shared platform plans with the provincial government.

"I haven't been briefed at this point in time on what their plans might be," she said. "It could be several things on the drawing board, but up to this point I haven't seen them."