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Production would have to be at “zero” to bring flaring down to pilot levels – Exxon
By Shikema Dey
Flaring at the Liza Destiny as captured in December
Kaieteur News – If ExxonMobil Guyana wants to reduce the 16 million cubic feet (mcdf) of natural gas being flared daily at the Liza Destiny vessel down to pilot levels, the oil giant would be forced to cease production said its Production Manager, Mike Ryan.
ExxonMobil Guyana’s Production Manager, Mike Ryan
Former Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Dr. Vincent Adams
Those comments came in direct response to claims made by Former Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams. The staunch advocate for the environment had said that the company is only giving the country a slew of excuses so that it can continue with its reckless endangerment of the environment. According to Dr. Adams, ExxonMobil can very well slash its production so that it can reduce its flaring to the required pilot level of one million cubic feet of natural gas daily or less. He had also said that if this cannot happen, then the company should shut down its operations.
Specifically, Dr. Adams had calculated that the oil company would only have to cut production by 15,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), thereby moving it from 120,000 bpd to 105,000 bpd. Dr. Adams had assumed with his calculations that some components of the malfunctioned gas compressor system were still in operation to allow approximately 95 million cubic feet of gas per day to be re-injected. Based upon the gas to oil production ratio, calculations would show that reducing the production rate by only 15,000 bopd to 105,000 bopd would reduce the flaring by 15 million cubic feet of gas per day, one million for allowable pilot flaring.
But the issue is not so simply fixed says ExxonMobil’s Production Manager.
While he noted that the gas compressor system is rather “complex and technical,” he explained what the process entailed.
Ryan elucidated that as the oil, water and gas is brought to the surface, it first goes to the separation train of high, medium and low-pressure separators. Once there, he said the gas of high and medium pressures go to the high and medium compressors where the majority of the gas is either being compressed, re-injected or consumed.
But when it comes to the low-pressure stream, it cannot be compressed without the flash gas compressor “no matter what the production level is,” he stated.
“And so comments to that effect of reducing the 15,000 are not correct. I understand it is a little technical but in order for us to get back to pilot flare levels, we need that flash gas compressor or we need to reduce production to zero,” the Production Manager detailed “and that is just the fact.”
What is strange, according to Dr. Adams, when ExxonMobil initially encountered issues with the gas compressor, it had no qualms slashing production. In fact, production was reduced to 30,000 bpd to allow for the very compressor to be repaired.
But now, the company seems headstrong on its stance to not lower production with the latest justification being that the country is badly in need of revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And even though, the company is in agreement that it would require shutting operations temporarily to get flaring back to safe levels – calls it out rightly rejected – the Production Manager made it clear that ExxonMobil’s focus right now is getting the gas compressor machine repaired and back to Guyana.
IMPORTANCE OF PILOT FLARING
With pilot flaring at one million cubic feet of gas per day or less, ExxonMobil is able to conduct safe operations at the Liza Destiny Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel. However, in this instance, ExxonMobil had reported that with the gas compressor for the vessel being under repairs in Germany, as such, it is forced to flare 16 million cubic feet of gas per day.
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