Production restarts at Husky's White Rose oil field

Husky Energy is one step closer to full production at the White Rose field after an oil spill months ago halted all operations, with the southern drill centre back online Wednesday.

The company said production resumed from the southern drill centre, based on the startup plan accepted by the regulatory Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board.

Part of its risk assessment and due diligence included flushing the flowlines at the South White Rose extension and the southern and North Amethyst drill centres with water.

The oil, gas and water in the lines were displaced to the SeaRose FPSO (floating, production, storage and offloading).

In an emailed statement, Husky said the South White Rose extension and North Amethyst drill centres are isolated, and leak testing was done.

"This process is similar to the one carried out in January before production resumed at the central drill centre," the statement read.

On Nov. 16, two spills on Husky's SeaRose production vessel released 250,000 litres of oil, water and gas into the ocean about 350 kilometres east of St. John's.