Production is set to resume Thursday at the Hibernia oil platform off eastern Canada nearly a month after a spill forced output at the development to be shut-in.

The platform's operator, Hibernia Management and Development (HMD), said it would restart production after conducting a "thorough inspection to ensure the safety and security of the platform", and that it would take the time needed to ramp up to full production safely.

"We are following a deliberate, staged return to production operations, and carrying out surveillance of the facility throughout the process," said HMD president Scott Sandlin.

"We have the safety of our people and protection of the environment foremost on our minds as we gradually bring production back on line."

An oil slick was spotted on the water near the 220,000-barrel-per day platform on 17 July. The release, a mix of water and oil, occurred during what HMD said were routine activities related to removing water from one of the storage cells. The initial size of the oil slick was estimated at 900 metres by 20 metres. The amount of oil spilled is thought to be around 75 barrels.

On Thursday, HMD said it had determined that the oil and water interface layer, or emulsion mixture, in the storage cell was behind the spill. The operator has removed the current interface layer from the storage cell and was revising procedures to protect against future possible reoccurrence.

"These revised procedures include revisions to minimum water heights in the cells and only producing into cells without residual interface," HMD said in a release.

"In their totality, the corrective actions brought forward from this incident provide a robust plan to manage future operations."

ExxonMobil is the largest shareholder of the Hibernia platform, which is about 315 kilometres east of St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Hibernia set for production restart