Husky Energy submitted a preliminary report about the largest-ever oil spill in Newfoundland and Labrador and said it is “deeply sorry” for the incident.
The company says it submitted the report on the Nov. 16 oil spill to the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) on Friday.
The C-NLOPB did confirm they had received the report, and say that they will not be publicly releasing any of the preliminary results from their investigation as it remains ongoing.
Husky Energy has confirmed that the leak, which sent an estimated 250,000 litres of crude oil into the Atlantic Ocean, was caused when a flowline connector failed near the South White Rose Extension drill centre, roughly 350 kilometres southeast of St. John’s.
READ MORE: Few updates, fewer answers two weeks after Newfoundland’s largest-ever oil spill
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The SeaRose was attempting to restart the operation during a fierce storm that was, at the time, the most intense in the world. Husky was the only producer that attempted to restart production during the storm.
Husky also confirmed that there were, in fact, two incidents in which a mixture of oil, water and gas were released.
“The initial release occurred during the approximately 20 minutes offshore teams were troubleshooting a drop in flowline pressure,” Husky wrote in a statement published on its website.
“A retest led to a second release lasting approximately 15 minutes.”
Husky Energy says it identified issues it needs to improve in the wake of the spill.
WATCH: Weak connector caused Husky oil spill off NL coast
Some of the actions include improving how to identify and manage non-standard or infrequent conditions, revising its adverse weather policy and adding more formal procedures around the process of restarting production.
“We are deeply sorry for the incident and are committed to learning from it and putting measures in place to ensure it does not happen again,” the company wrote.
“We continue to work with the regulator on a plan to recover the failed flowline connector and plug the flowline and are cooperating fully with (the regulator’s) investigation.”