Guyana Oil and Gas News

ExxonMobil and two of its subcontractors were fined three times this year for minor spills of hydraulic fluid in the offshore Stabroek Block and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it wanted to underscore zero tolerance for lax maintenance and procedures in light of the large risk that such operations can pose to the environment and safety.

With an energy researcher warning of the potential environmental harm that could result from natural gas at Exxon’s Liza-1 project in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana, the company has assured that it has already implemented a leak detection and repair programme that utilises the latest technology.

ExxonMobil should prove it is using efficient gas flaring technology in oil operations offshore and it is also imperative that both Guyana and the company have stringent measures in place to monitor for leaks from its equipment as such emissions have stronger greenhouse effects, physicist and energy researcher Dr Robert Kleinberg says.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being urged to implement a carbon tax on the crude oil currently being extracted in the offshore Stabroek Block by ExxonMobil’s subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd (EEPGL) which could earn Guyana billions annually.

-flaring equal to destroying 6.2 hectares of forest per day continuing Exxon’s flaring of over nine billion cubic feet of natural gas since oil production began in December is equivalent to the loss of 4,642 hectares of forest, which would be valued at US$24 million based on the carbon price under Guyana’s forest protection pact with Norway, says conservationist Dr David Singh.

Jose Cardenas, a political consultant based in Washington, DC, yesterday said that Guyana’s current political situation is “troublesome” and it paves the way for sanctions to be imposed and restrictions can also be placed on the country’s oil funds if the will of the people is not respected.

Nineteen companies have been shortlisted from 34 that last April expressed interest in marketing Guyana’s share of oil from the Exxon-operated Liza Destiny FPSO in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana, for a period of one year.

Having fixed issues with two of its three gas handling systems and now using 85% of associated gas from the reservoir, ExxonMobil has further reduced flaring at its offshore Liza-1 well project and has started to again ramp up production, the company yesterday said. 

Production at Exxon-Mobil’s Liza-1 project in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana, has plummeted from 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) to now between 25,000 and 30,000 bpd as compressor problems continue and the company would not increase flaring above about 15 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Dr Vincent Adams has said.

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI) yesterday said that planning for the use of natural gas from the Liza-1 well began in September 2015 and continues to date even though more than nine billion cubic feet has already been controversially flared  by ExxonMobil.

As ExxonMobil yesterday continued to play up its Guyana investments at its virtual Annual Meeting of shareholders, global environmental and human rights organisation, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) called on the company to heed environmental pollution warnings and immediately stop flaring gas here.

ExxonMobil’s flaring of over nine billion  cubic feet of natural gas could have been avoided had a proposed  gas-to-shore pipeline project been implemented but it was stalled because a plan to determine the best location was rejected by government officials as some wanted to handpick a site, former Petroleum Advisor Jan Mangal says.

Guyana has lifted its second one-million barrel cargo of crude oil entitlement from ongoing offshore production and the oil tanker Sonangol Namibe departed these shores yesterday afternoon.

ExxonMobil Guyana President Rod Henson will be leaving Guyana in the coming months to take up a new post as Vice President, Wells, for ExxonMobil in Houston, with responsibility for all drilling activities around the world.

Former presidential advisor on petroleum Jan Mangal has expressed shock that ExxonMobil has flared over 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas offshore and said that he had insisted in 2018 that there be no flaring and that gas be brought to shore for electricity, fertilizer and other uses.

Through a farm-down agreement with Malaysian company, PETRONAS – Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), ExxonMobil has bought some 50 per cent of participating interest in the Suriname offshore Block 52 which is in range of its Guyana’s Stabroek Block offshore oil basin where it has already made 17 discoveries.

After glitches during production startup saw flaring of over 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas,  ExxonMobil has assured that it will from this week begin transitioning to using the gas for well injection purposes, Head of the Environment Protection Agency Dr Vincent Adams says.

The Department of Energy (DE) yesterday said that the delay in the approval process for Exxon’s third well project is due both to unresolved issues surrounding its development plan and Guyana’s current political crisis.

The Department of Energy (DE) has proposed a list of experts to help evaluate prospective marketers for Guyana’s oil as the current pool of National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) evaluators lack the required expertise in the area.

Guyana’s Liza-1 oil field has produced  over eight million barrels of oil since extraction started last December and its top projected capacity of 120,000 barrels per day is expected to be attained by early June 2020.