Exxon’s flaring: Shut them down and make them pay!

Exxon’s flaring: Shut them down and make them pay! – Melinda Janki

Feb 01, 2021 News

By Shikema Dey

Would ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) be picking up the exuberant cost attached to greenhouse gas emissions caused by its flaring offshore in the Stabroek Block, or would it be the Guyanese people?

International Lawyer, Melinda Janki

This is the critical question industry stakeholders say is facing the nation since the social cost for such reckless endangerment of the environment stands at US$417 per tonne.
It is on this premise that International Lawyer, Melinda Janki called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to shut operations at Exxon’s Liza Destiny oil vessel and “make them pay” for the damage to the health and wellbeing of Guyanese as well as the environment.
In an invited comment, Janki said that oil is making Guyana “poorer not richer” as is seen daily by the “exploitative, unworkable” Stabroek Block deal, that is robbing billions of dollars from current and future generations.
Further to this, Janki pointed out that ExxonMobil’s financial statements reveal that it is losing money on oil, while adding, that it lost approximately US$680 million in the third quarter of 2020 alone. Against that backdrop, she noted that several questions need to be asked, including whether the oil giant can afford to continue operations at the Liza One well.
She asked, “Are they cutting corners? Why are they using a faulty compressor? What other faulty equipment have they installed? National law requires Esso to use the most appropriate technology. Are they? It doesn’t look so.”
She highlighted too, that the Liza One Environmental Permit also spells out that the company should have spare equipment available to cater for any sudden malfunctions.
The Article 3.13 states verbatim that, “Efforts should be made to prevent equipment breakdowns and plant upsets which could result in flaring and provisions should be made for equipment sparing and plant turn-down protocols where practical.”
But the provision is so ambiguous that it does not definitively state that company “must” have spare equipment on hand. It therefore means that Guyana and the world at large are left to cope with the harrowing effects of flaring until Exxon manages to repair the damaged compressor.
It should be noted, ExxonMobil had said that to safely continue operations at the Liza One FPSO, it will be forced to flare gas above pilot levels due to a malfunctioned gas compressor seal. Before that, the oil company had issues with that very compressor. However, in December of last year, it was purportedly fixed.
That malfunction resulted in over one billion cubic feet of gas being flared for more than a year, along with the release of toxic chemicals. With the flaring back again, Janki posited that for the sake of Guyana’s economy, the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) “must shut down Liza One immediately, carry out a full investigation, and demand full payment for the damage.”