Suncor Energy has run into big problems on its Terra Nova life extension project offshore Newfoundland, Canada, with costs ballooning and the schedule hit hard by an overspill of revamp work in Spain on the field’s ageing floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

These issues have prompted questions in Newfoundland & Labrador about why an overseas yard was handed the FPSO upgrade contract in the first place, especially after Suncor won C$500 million of financial aid from Canada’s authorities in 2021 to stop it carrying out a threat to scrap the Terra Nova Asset Life Extension (ALE) project.