The champagne is flowing in St. John's. "A new energy province is born," declares Jake Epp, the federal energy minister. After a decade of negotiation, deals to develop the Hibernia oil field off the coast of Newfoundland have been signed by the oil giants, the governments and the contractors. One construction worker calls Hibernia an economic "godsend". But an economist offers a sobering assessment that it won't improve the standard of living of the average Newfoundlander.

• The Hibernia oil field was discovered in 1979. It lies under the Atlantic Ocean about 315 kilometres southeast of St. John's, Nfld. The oil is below 80 metres of water and 3,700 metres of ocean floor.
• The Hibernia field is in the Jeanne d'Arc Basin in the northeast portion of the Grand Banks. A limited number of exploratory, or "wildcat", wells were drilled in the area before the Hibernia project got underway.

• The Hibernia drilling platform is one of the largest in the world. It stands 224 metres high -- taller than both the Peace Tower and the Calgary Tower and half as high as New York City's Empire State building. Oil started flowing at the platform on Nov. 17, 1997.
• The platform has a massive concrete pedestal resting on the ocean floor, living quarters for 185 crew members and two simultaneously used drills. It was built in Bull Arm, Nfld.

• ExxonMobil Canada is the lead partner in the Hibernia project with a 33-per-cent stake. The other partners are:

- Chevron Canada Resources
- Petro Canada
- The Canadian government
- Murphy Oil
- Norsk Hydro of Norway.

• Construction costs for the Hibernia project totaled $5.8 billion. The oil companies involved said they would never have undertaken the project without $2.7 billion in cash and loan guarantees from the Canadian government. Seabed oil extraction is costly compared to land-based drilling.
• Unlike its counterparts in the North Sea, the Hibernia drilling platform is reinforced to withstand knocks from huge icebergs.
• Hibernia is the ancient Roman name for Ireland.

• The Hibernia project is considered a success. When this clip aired, the partners estimated the Hibernia field contained between 525 million and 650 million barrels of oil. By January 2005, that estimate had increased to 940 million barrels.
• Peak output was expected to be 110,000 barrels per day. In 2004, Hibernia produced an average of 200,000 barrels per day. The Hibernia field is expected to be productive until about 2017.

• Newfoundland leaders applauded the thousands of construction jobs Hibernia created. But by 2000 they were complaining the province wasn't receiving its fair share of oil revenues.
• For each dollar in oil revenue the province earned, it lost about 70 cents from the federal equalization payment given to Newfoundland as a "have-not" province.
• Between November 1997 and April 2000, Hibernia earned only $21 million for Newfoundland -- a tiny fraction of the oil-company revenues.

• In 2004, Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams bargained aggressively for a better deal with Ottawa. When negotiations stalled, he angered the federal government and many Canadians by lowering Canadian flags on government buildings as a protest.
• In early 2005, after the flags went back up, the federal government agreed to a deal. It lets Newfoundland keep all of its oil and gas revenues, without losing any equalization payments, for eight years. The deal will put at least $2 billion into the province's treasury.

• Only a tiny fraction of the 400 million barrels of crude oil produced at Hibernia by March 2005 was refined at Newfoundland's only refinery. Almost all the crude is shipped to refineries elsewhere in Canada and in the U.S.

• Since this clip was broadcast in 1990, three other oil fields have been discovered in the Jeanne d'Arc Basin. The Terra Nova field is in production. Oil started flowing at the White Rose field in late 2005, and oil companies signed a deal to drill in the Hebron field in 2007. Jeanne d'Arc is one of about 20 basins in the Grand Banks region.

Medium: Television
Program: The National
Broadcast Date: Sept. 14, 1990
Guest(s): Ian Doig, Fraser Edison, Jake Epp, Wade Locke
Host: Knowlton Nash
Reporter: Brian Dubreuil
Duration: 2:29

Last updated: February 6, 2012

Page consulted on March 20, 2013