No injuries but Hibernia oil spill posed threat of deadly blast and fire: regulator

A tug positions itself near the base of the Hibernia platform in Bull Arm, N.L., Thursday, May 22, 1997. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

ST. JOHN’S — The agency that oversees Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore energy sector says a recent oil spill and gas leak aboard the Hibernia oil platform could have caused a deadly explosion and fire.

The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Energy Regulator said Friday the spill on May 12 was contained on the platform. But it was classified as a “major hydrocarbon release” based on the amount that leaked from a damaged piece of equipment.

No one was injured and none of the 1,600 litres of spilled crude seeped into the ocean.

The regulator said Hibernia personnel were preparing to pump crude onto a tanker around 11 a.m. when they noticed unusual noises coming from the platform’s utility shaft, where a drain on a sludge pump had been sheared off, releasing crude oil.

At that point, gas was also detected. But the crude discharge was stopped when a worker closed a manual valve on the broken pump.

“The incident is classified as having potential for fire, explosion and fatality,” the regulator said in a statement released Friday.

The independent regulator said it had requested more information from the Hibernia Management and Development Company, which operates the platform and manages the oilfield about 315 kilometres east of St. John’s.

Among other things, the federal-provincial agency says it wants to determine the root causes of the accident and assess the company’s response.

Meanwhile, the company is conducting an investigation and on May 27 submitted to the regulator its findings from a preliminary probe.

A spokesperson for Hibernia Management and Development could not be immediately reached for comment.

Hibernia is one of four oil installations off Newfoundland’s east coast. It was the first to produce oil in November 1997.

Earlier this month, the president of ExxonMobil Canada, Kerry Moreland, said new wells and investments will ensure the Hibernia oilfield continue producing “well beyond” its expected 30-year lifespan.

Since 2017, Hibernia Management and Development has been fined three times for spills from the massive gravity-based platform, which sits on the ocean floor.

In August 2023, Hibernia’s operator was fined $400,000 following an investigation into a spill that released about 12,000 litres of crude into the North Atlantic on July 17, 2019, leaving two large slicks that extended for several kilometres.

In January 2023, the company pleaded not guilty to three charges in provincial court in St. John’s. But it later pleaded guilty to a single charge and agreed to pay the fine.

Meanwhile, the company was fined $28,000 in April 2022 for a spill in August 2019 that resulted in a 2,200-litre mix of water and crude leaking into the sea after a power outage. The fine had been reduced from $40,000 after the company successfully argued that its cleanup efforts had prevented wildlife from encountering the spill.

And in October 2017, the company pleaded guilty to continuing to operate the platform in December 2013 after a leak was detected and about 6,000 litres of crude spilled into the Atlantic. The company was fined $80,000 and ordered to pay $170,000 into the federal Environmental Damages Fund.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 28, 2026.

-- By Michael MacDonald in Halifax