OPINION: Suncor Energy’s delayed and budget-breaking project to revamp its Terra Nova floating production, storage and offloading vessel so it can operate safely in Canada’s harsh Atlantic waters for another decade has put the issue of local content back in the spotlight.

Under the Terra Nova Asset Life Extension (ALE) scheme that had an original price tag of US$500 million, the FPSO will tap an extra 70 million barrels of oil at the eponymous field offshore Newfoundland & Labrador.

Suncor threatened to cancel the project in 2021 during the dark days of Covid, but hundreds of millions of dollars of financial inducements from the Canadian taxpayer persuaded the company to push ahead with ALE.