Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
Exxon now using, re-injecting 96% of Natural gas from Liza Destiny
…will monitor defective compressor until new one arrives year end—Production Manager
Kaieteur News – US Oil Major, ExxonMobil, says that it is re-injecting and consuming more than 96 percent of the associated Natural gas produced since the full gas compression system on the Liza Destiny Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel is now operating.
ExxonMobil Guyana’s Production Manager, Mike Ryan.
The company in making the announcement had noted its Production Manager, Mike Ryan, iterating that the ExxonMobil “team continues to perform maintenance and optimisation activities with the aim of keeping the flash gas compressor on-line and minimising flaring until the arrival of the new flash gas compressor at the end of the year.”
The FPSO operating in Guyana’s Stabroek Block, which forms part of the Liza-1 project, was producing between 120,000 and 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, after a compressor failure earlier this year prevented it from producing at full capacity without flaring in excess of Guyana’s government guidance.
Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL)—ExxonMobil Guyana’s subsidiary—had at the end of June said its upgraded and repaired the discharge silencer for the flash gas compressor and a new venturi were safely installed on the Liza Destiny vessel with the first phase of testing successfully completed earlier this week.
The flash gas compression system was started up on June 19, last, for the first testing phase and was shut down on June 28, last, in order to remove temporary probes and instrumentation.
ExxonMobil at the time, to ensure it remains in compliance with its environmental permit, said it had applied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval to flare above pilot level for this extended period of equipment testing. Pilot level means one million standard cubic feet of gas.
The subject of the flaring of Natural gas from the Liza Destiny since the vessel was unable at times to re-inject back the gases had become a sore topic for public debate.
The administration in May last had publicly stated that the flaring practice would not be tolerated, much less a recurrence on the Liza Unity, which is set to arrive in Guyana later in the year and the Prosperity set to arrive in 2024.
Calling the recent troubles with the gas compressor that substantially curtailed operations in April 11, last, “unfortunate,” substantive Minister with responsibility for the sector, Vickram Bharrat, was at the time adamant “it is not something that the Government of Guyana wants. It is not something that we will tolerate.”
Defects to the flash gas compressor in April last forced ExxonMobil Guyana to slash production by some 60,000 barrels per day, in order to maintain safe operations and not flare above pilot levels. The company has since removed and flown the defective part to Houston, Texas, and not Germany, as had obtained the previous time the flash gas compressor experienced problems and had to be removed and repaired.
The device malfunctioned for a fourth time while it was being monitored following its reinstallation in early March.
Kaieteur News would have reported that a gas leak had been detected. Lamenting the state of affairs, Minister Bharrat said, “it is affecting production and worse yet, it is causing damage to the environment by the flaring of gas.” But according to the optimistic Minister, “we’re hoping that the matter can be resolved, or the compressor, that is, can be fixed as early as possible.”
He expressed at the time, “we are hoping too, that when it is fixed and returned, that we don’t have a reoccurring issue.”
As such, he disclosed, “this has now forced us to enter into engagements with Exxon to ensure that the Unity FPSO that is coming later in this year, and then Prosperity in early 2024, that we don’t have this issue with those FPSOs.”
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