Exxon’s repaired compressor back in Guyana

Mar 14, 2021 News

Gas compression equipment at the Liza Destiny oil vessel

ExxonMobil Guyana’s Government and Public Affairs Advisor, Janelle Persaud.

Kaieteur News – ExxonMobil’s local subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), said yesterday that the repaired equipment which had caused flaring offshore Guyana have arrived onshore for reinstatement.
“The repaired and upgraded Flash gas compressor and silencers for the Liza Destiny FPSO have arrived offshore Guyana for reinstallation,” the company said in an operational update.
It added that the necessary technical experts have also arrived in country, and will support experts already in country with the reinstallation. The equipment underwent repairs at the manufacturer’s MAN Energy workshop in Germany.
“A detailed assessment of the compressor has found an axial vibration of the compressor rotor was the initiating event of the technical issues experienced on January 27,” EEPGL Government and Public Affairs Advisor, Janelle Persaud told Kaieteur News of the root cause of the malfunction.
This resulted in flaring above pilot levels, of about 16 million cubic feet of gas per day. A simple calculation shows that ExxonMobil likely already flared over 720 million cubic feet of gas since the malfunction in January.
This adds to the previous total of over 12.4 billion cubic feet of gas flared before, due to equipment defects at the start of production and an equipment malfunction earlier in January. This recent instance is the third time ExxonMobil encountered issues with its gas compression equipment, which resulted in above pilot flaring.
ExxonMobil has also placed an order for a new gas compressor, which it expects to arrive in Guyana closer to the end of the year. This compressor will replace the repaired compressor, which will serve as a backup.
ExxonMobil has been testing the capacity of the Liza Phase One operation to produce above nameplate capacity. The company insists the malfunction(s) had nothing to do with its higher production testing.
According to Hess Corporation, an Exxon partner in the Stabroek Block, ExxonMobil has planned a brief shutdown period in the third quarter of 2021, during which there will be some piping changes and debottlenecking to facilitate the nameplate increase.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News