Govt. reviewing Exxon’s third field development plan

Dec 17, 2019 News

The Government of Guyana is currently conducting a preliminary review of the Payara field development plan (FDP).

The Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana

A field development plan is a layout of all of the processes and activities intended to develop an oil field, and the manner in which those will be executed. Before it begins to develop a field, an oil company is required to hand over its plan to the Department of Energy for approval before it gets to work.
The current review process is being conducted by the Department of Energy, in conjunction with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
Director of the Department of Energy, Dr. Mark Bynoe, notified the media of this process yesterday, during a press conference at the Department’s Brickdam office.
He said that the Government agencies have gained some level of understanding based on their experiences during the review processes for the Liza-1 and Liza-2 projects. Those projects have been approved and are both set to be operationalised by this month and 2022 respectively. The projected cost for their development amounts to nearly US$10B.
The Payara project is shaping up to cost just as much as Liza-2, as there are many project similarities. Those include the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, which would both produce 220,000 barrels of oil per day.
Dr. Bynoe said yesterday that the Liza Unity is about 97 percent complete. The Director told reporters that the topside fabrication is ongoing, while the line-pipe fabrication is 99 percent complete, and the buoyancy modules 80 percent complete.
“The operator is working with the Department of Energy to continue to fulfill the conditions that were laid down, and I’m happy to report that we have since received one such report from the operator that was a condition of the FDP approval.”
That report is being reviewed by the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Following the Government’s preliminary review of the Payara FDP, Government will hire a third party reviewer to conduct a more comprehensive review. It has completed the contract negotiation thus far, and is now awaiting the award of the contract to a reputable international firm.
Recent public discourse about the field development plans, as reported by Kaieteur News, indicate that there is a considerable push to make sure the activities planned by ExxonMobil and its partners on the Stabroek Block, and the costs involved, are repeatedly and publicly scrutinised.
The Petroleum Directorate of Norway, for one, makes their field development plans public. Industry experts have posited that Guyana should do the same.
Kaieteur News posed the suggestion to Dr. Bynoe, who indicated his refusal to do so. He indicated that there is proprietary information that needs to remain confidential. When Kaieteur News suggested the publication of the field development plans after the removal of such proprietary information, the Director of the Energy Department did not respond.
All of this happens as ExxonMobil hands out contract after contract for construction works related to the still unapproved Payara FDP. The company has indicated its intention to start production on the Payara project in 2023

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