Terra Nova shutdown will cost $360K a day: Finance department

It's not clear how long the Terra Nova oil platform will be shut down off the coast of Newfoundland, but it's clear that it will cost the province dearly.

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance said each day the floating production storage and offloading vessel is offline costs the province $360,000.

The ship was shut down because one of its two fire water pumps was not working.

The provincial government has previously referred to losses from shutdowns as "deferred revenue," since it is money that will be made eventually, when the rig ramps up production again.

However, Finance Minister Tom Osborne admitted Friday that those losses are beginning to hurt.

"It creates challenges. Those revenue shortfalls this year create a challenge, and that's part of the reason we're off target this year," he said.

The province will run a deficit of$944million. It could have been $185 million less if not for Hibernia shutting down after an oil spill in July.

In 2018, the province lost $80 million when the SeaRose was shut down.

"Last year, we were able to weather the storm because of other measures that we've taken," Osborne said."This year, it's kind of caught up with us."

While the other two shutdowns were related to spills, Terra Nova will be clear to start production once the safety measures are in place.

A spokesperson for Suncor, the company that owns Terra Nova, said the pump has been defective since November. It had broken before, but the offshore regulatory board had allowed the company to use a seawater pump as a backup.

Suncor had been doing the same thing since November, but it was deemed unacceptable this time around.

In October, Suncor identified 30 pieces of equipment that were not compliant with safety standards. The company said it was committed to addressing the problems by January.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador