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Greenhouse gas emissions at Yellowtail can lead to health concerns
… oil spill would impact beaches, sea defences, fishing stock—Project Summary
Flaring onboard the Liza Destiny.
Emissions from flaring, plant emissions, emissions from construction equipment and “fugitive emissions from construction and other operations” can lead to increased concentrations of pollutants in the air that could contribute to health concerns in exposed humans and wildlife.
These are among the potential environmental concerns listed by ExxonMobil as it seeks approval for its Yellowtail development in the Stabroek Block. The information is presented in the ExxonMobil’s project summary for its fourth development, as submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the weekend.
According to the company, “Air emissions resulting from the Project have the potential to affect ambient air quality in the Project area on a localised basis and to contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”
It was noted in the project summary that building on the previous Stabroek Projects, Yellowtail will be designed to demonstrate continuous improvement in environmental performance and that the company “routinely strives to make improvements in environmental performance through emissions controls, technology enhancements and process improvements.”
It was recalled in the document that in 2020, the Liza Destiny experienced unanticipated technical challenges and unplanned gas flaring during its startup and commissioning process.
As such, the company said, it “has conducted comprehensive root cause analyses of these issues and evaluated potential improvements to gas handling systems, sparing philosophy and execution procedures.”
According to the company, it plans to take significant steps to incorporate the lessons learned from the commissioning of the Liza Destiny into future projects, including Yellowtail.
Meanwhile, additional concerns made known by the ExxonMobil subsidiary—Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL)—included that the project also has the potential to affect marine geology and sediments along in the project development area. This is since disturbance of the seabed during offshore drilling and installation activities have the potential to affect the location’s habitat and cause death or injury of domestic fauna. Additionally, EEPGL said the development could have localised impacts to marine water quality in the project development area from discharge of drill cuttings and from routine operational and hydro testing discharges. It said too, that the development could potentially impact marine water quality as a result of non-routine, unplanned events such as an oil spill, which could lead to an increase in total “suspended solids concentrations, chemical concentrations, or temperature in water column has a potential to affect marine water quality and marine habitat quality and affect wildlife.”
Speaking specifically to the potential for oil spills, ExxonMobil in its project document noted, that while the development is not expected to impact beaches, mangroves, or wetlands in the project during routine, planned operations and activities, it could potentially impact these as a result of non-routine, unplanned events such as an oil spill. Additionally, a spill could result in declines in fisheries productivity, and/or affect other ecosystem services such as flood control. Similarly, it was noted that an oil spill could also potentially impact coastal wildlife, including inducing chronic ‘sub-lethal’ effects such as decreased vigour or reproductive impacts from direct exposure or ingestion of contaminated prey.
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