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Exxon’s increased flaring takes Guyana to #5 in the world
By Kemol King
Kaieteur News – Due to ExxonMobil’s ramp-up of toxic gas flaring at the Liza Phase One operation, so much has been emitted that Guyana is now one of the top five countries in the world for volume flared per year, per capita.
Graph shows countries by flaring per year, per capita. (Data – World Bank, Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report (July, 2020), Guyana Environmental Protection Agency)
This is a new development, up from Kaieteur News’ last September calculation, which had placed Guyana at sixth place. Following that report, ExxonMobil ramped up production in October and flared more gas. Head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Sharifah Razack, had provided that Exxon flared 16.496 million standard cubic feet of gas per day in October – up from 15 million cubic feet per day before.
The EPA provided that as of October 31, the rate of flaring has been reduced to 14.924 million standard cubic feet of gas.
In September, Guyana had trailed Libya, Gabon, Oman, Qatar and Iraq, in total gas flared per capita, judging from statistics from the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report (July, 2020). However, the increased flaring in October caused Guyana to surpass Iraq.
It is important to note that Guyana’s total volume flared in a year is not as high as Iraq, which is one of the worst polluters in the world, alongside Russia and the United States. However, due to Guyana’s small population, it is emitting more toxic gas per head than those three countries. Russia and the US emitted 161 and 53 cubic metres per capita, last year, respectively. Iraq emitted 456 cubic metres per capita last year, behind Guyana’s emissions in the past year, which stand at an average rate of 461 cubic metres per capita. This would equate to the destruction of 2.17 acres of forest for every Guyanese, or 1.56 million acres of forest in total.
ExxonMobil’s flaring was only supposed to occur at project startup in December last year, to test the equipment. However, flaring went way past the project startup. The company claimed it had to flare, since its gas compression equipment was defective and needed to undergo repairs overseas. Said repairs reportedly proved difficult to undergo with haste, given limitations the COVID-19 pandemic safety guidelines have placed on companies. Exxon is yet to complete the repairs to all of its defective equipment.
Dangers of flaring
Research by Kaieteur News has found that the flaring of gas is extremely damaging to the environment. A special study conducted by the World Bank notes that flaring releases more than 250 toxins including cancer causing agents such as benzopyrene, benzene, carbon disulphide (CS2), carbonyl sulphide (COS), and toluene. It also releases metals such as mercury, arsenic, and chromium and nitrogen oxides.
The burning of the gas is damaging to the environment. It tends to destabilize the greenhouse effect, a natural process which involves a delicate balancing act between the radiation coming into and leaving the earth’s atmosphere. This balancing act is tipped over when increasing levels of greenhouse gases, much of which is caused by oil production, is released into the atmosphere, resulting in global warming.
Flaring is also hazardous to human health. Nigerian scientists, Omosivie Maduka and Charles Tobin-West, in a joint paper lodged with the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), explain that flaring in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria has polluted the air and water, and precipitates the formation of acid rain. All of this, they said, has caused negative outcomes in the communities there, including chronic and recurrent respiratory diseases, abnormalities in the blood, increased susceptibility to certain diseases of the blood and others.
TOXIC – ExxonMobil has been flaring gas at the Liza Destiny vessel all year, despite the fact that the gas is supposed to be re-injected into the reservoir. (Credit: Guyana Marine Conservation Society)
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