Latest update November 5th, 2024 1:00 AM
Don’t allow int’l companies to flout laws while going after local chicken farms – Dr Adams
– Dr. Vincent Adams
Former Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams
Kaieteur News – Guyana’s environmental watchdog, the Environmental Protect Agency (EPA), employs stringent measures to monitor and prevent damage to the environment by local Guyanese.
On the other hand, when it comes to employing those same measures against big companies like US oil supermajor ExxonMobil, a lackluster approach is seen as the company continues to pollute Guyana’s environment with its flaring.
Taking the foregoing into consideration, Dr. Vincent Adams, the Former Head of the Agency, issued a call on the governing administration to not allow large international companies to get a free pass on flouting Guyana’s environmental laws.
“We should never allow any company, regardless of how big and powerful they are to flout the laws of the land, while the ordinary citizen has to comply,” Dr. Adams lamented.
ExxonMobil, according to Dr. Adams is being allowed to operate with impunity and without any regards for the environment, while the locals are not extended the same courtesy.
“We cannot continue to go after the small guys with their little operations, with their little chicken farm there or pig farm there. We go after them to make sure that they are in compliance with the regulatory requirements but Exxon is allowed to get away with it even though theirs has a bigger impact on the environment,” the Former EPA Head continued.
Government’s priority, Dr. Adams outlined, should be ensuring that ExxonMobil falls in conformity with Guyana’s environmental laws as it relates to the flaring of natural gas and also the dumping of produced water.
Currently, the gas compressor malfunction on the Liza Destiny FPSO has the company flaring 16 million cubic feet of natural gas daily.
Dr. Adams has said that the company should not be flaring at that level with a compressor malfunction or even producing 120,000 barrels of oil per day, as this constitutes a violation of both the Liza Destiny Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Permit.
He reminded as well that when the gas compressor initially malfunctioned, he had slashed ExxonMobil’s production low enough that the company was only able to flare 12-15 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, but the company still continues to operate as per norm.
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