Is Exxon telling the truth about flaring offshore Guyana?

Feb 06, 2021 News

– Says it lowered production since last week Friday; Govt. says otherwise

By Mikaila Prince

Exxon flaring at their Liza Destiny operations offshore Guyana

Kaieteur News – One week after it had increased flaring at the Liza Destiny oil vessel, ExxonMobil, yesterday finally issued a statement to the media sharing details on the ship’s defective gas compressor and production levels. In the statement, President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, claimed that since the increased flaring begun last week, the US oil company had lowered production levels as a way of managing the toxic flaring.

ExxonMobil Guyana President, Alistair Routledge

He said in fact, “We have lowered production levels on the Liza Destiny since the compressor failed and continue to seek ways to reduce flaring. We are currently injecting or using 88 percent of the gas produced from the wells.”
Kaieteur News immediately reached out to Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo and Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat, requesting confirmation on the reduced production claimed by ExxonMobil.However, both Dr. Jagdeo and Minister Bharrat indicated that Exxon had been producing at peak and over 120,000 barrels of oil per day, as reported to the government by the oil company itself, earlier this week.

Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat

Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo

Kaieteur News first reached out to Minister Bharrat, asking him what level Exxon’s production had been lowered to.
But the Minister revealed that up to February 3, which was three days ago, production had remained steady at 120,000 barrels per day.
“If it was lowered, then it [was] most likely [done] yesterday or today (Friday)”, the Minister said, while pointing out that he had to confirm same.
Subsequent contact was made with VP Jagdeo, who told to this publication that the last report that he received from the Department of Energy (DoE), which was earlier this week, stated that Exxon’s production was above 120,000 barrels per day.
“I don’t know if they have lowered production since,” the VP added.

ANOTHER CONFLICTING REPORT
In Exxon’s statement yesterday, the oil giant also wrote that a technical team had removed the “3rd stage compressor from the package enclosure” on the Liza Destiny Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, and is preparing it for transport onshore. The oil company further stated that an initial examination determined that the unit had to be sent for repairs in Germany and was expected to arrive there on February 9.
“The full extent of the damage will not be known until a detailed inspection of the compressor can take place at the workshop of the manufacturer, MAN Turbo in Germany,” Exxon said.
These details, however, are dissimilar to what was told to Kaieteur News by the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Sharifah Razack, just earlier this week. Razack had told this publication that an internal inspection of the equipment will be done onboard the FPSO, with aims of determining whether the defective internal mechanical seal, which led to the increased flaring, could be reseated or needed replacing.
The Director mentioned too that if the equipment needed replacing, a backup seal was present in Guyana.
It is unclear why the equipment needs to be sent to Germany, especially if a spare part is already in Guyana. This could indicate that during the initial inspections of the gas compressor, faults that are separate from the defective seal were encountered by the technical team.
Efforts were made to ascertain those details from Razack, but up to press time, this publication received no response from her.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News