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ExxonMobil to test limits of gas compression equipment
By Kemol King
ExxonMobil Guyana President, Alistair Routledge
Kaieteur News – ExxonMobil intends to test the limits of its gas compression equipment, as it evaluates options to increase the nameplate capacity of the Liza Destiny Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO). The intention to increase the operation’s nameplate capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil per day was first announced by Chief Operations Officer (COO) at Hess Corporation, Gregory Hill during the Stabroek Block partner’s 2020 Q4 earnings call in January.
The company had been testing the liquids capacity in late January, raising production to 130,000 barrels of oil a day, when its gas compression system experienced a malfunction. This caused the company to start flaring above pilot levels, according to its public statements, to 16 million cubic feet of gas per day.
“The testing is on the liquids handling,” President of Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), Alistair Routledge told reporters on March 4. The President of the local ExxonMobil subsidiary said that the company is not close to testing any limits on the gas system.
The company held a press conference on that day to engage the media on their specific concerns and questions about flaring and equipment repairs.
“What we were testing,” Routledge said, “is really in the liquids handling system. No issues were seen there and this issue is completely unrelated to equipment issue.”
Production at Liza Phase One or any oil operation typically has a gas to oil ratio. Hence, as the company produced more oil, it would have already been producing more gas. By Routledge’s own admission, the company was testing the liquids capacity of the operation by producing more oil, but was not simultaneously testing the limits to the gas system, despite there being an increase in gas production.
ExxonMobil has noted in its operational updates that there will be upgrades to the equipment. Asked whether these upgrades are related to plans to increase nameplate, Production Manager Mike Ryan stopped short of a denial. He said, “The gas stream going through this machine, we’re currently at 70 percent. Any increase… is still well within this machine, and so we have contemplated that over the life of the facility, and so we are focused right now though, on getting this machine fixed, getting it on board, stable, background flare. And then we’ll discuss evaluation of any capacity test going forward.”
The equipment is due to return and be reinstated by the end of the month.
The company, according to Hess, intends to have a shutdown period for the Liza One operation in the third quarter of 2021, during which it will undertake some piping changes and debottlenecking to facilitate the nameplate increase.
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