ExxonMobil boasts of “very safe year” in Guyana despite two years of flaring

Dec 24, 2021 News

President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge boasted yesterday that his company has had a safe year of operations in line with its commitment of “Nobody Gets Hurt”.

Kaieteur News – Recalling the safety performance for the year, he disclosed that there were hundreds of days across offshore operations without a recordable safety incident.
Routledge also classified 2021 as an outstanding year for ExxonMobil Guyana, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have been able to overcome operational issues and deliver on volume targets including five cargos to the Government of Guyana. We’ve also continued our wonderful exploration success. Again, people tend to forget that this is a frontier exploration acreage and we shouldn’t expect the kind of success we’ve seen,” Routledge outlined.

President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge

The Country Manager recalled that his company has recorded multiple discoveries in the Stabroek Block in 2021, which increased the recoverable resource estimated at approximately 10 billion oil equivalent barrels.

While Routledge spoke to safety of operations in the context of persons offshore avoiding incidents of harm, he neglected to acknowledge the tonnes of toxic chemicals that have polluted the nation’s airspace for two years due to its faulty gas compressor aboard the Liza Destiny. In the two paragraphs it did dedicate to this flagrant violation of citizens’ right to a clean and safe environment, it said, “Earlier challenges with the flash gas compressor on the Liza Destiny have also been overcome, resulting in steady, continually safe operations on the vessel. Production on the Destiny remains above 120, 000 barrels per day, while the flare is maintained at regulatory required levels. At ExxonMobil Guyana, our teams strive for continuous improvement in our operations and environmental performance. In early 2022, we expect to install a new redesigned flash gas compressor on the Liza Destiny, and we will commission the gas injection system on the Liza Unity utilizing lessons learned from our first project.”

Extensive research conducted by Kaieteur News shows that gas flaring contributes to climate change, which has serious implications for the human security and wellbeing globally. In fact, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, outlined in one of its studies, that gas flaring is actually a major source of greenhouse gases, which accelerates global warming.
It was noted, that flaring releases Carbon Dioxide and Methane, the two major greenhouse gases. Of these two, Methane is actually more harmful than Carbon Dioxide. It is also more prevalent in flares that burn at lower efficiency.
Of the greenhouse gases researched so far, Kaieteur News understands that the global warming potential of a kilogramme of Methane is estimated to be 21 times that of a kilogramme of Carbon Dioxide when the effects are considered.
The University of Ibadan study also noted that flaring contributes to local and regional environmental problems, such as acid rain with attendant impact on agriculture, forests and other physical infrastructure. The acid rain results in environmental degradation, which includes soil and water contamination and roof erosion. Furthermore, there have been over 250 identified toxins released from flaring, including carcinogens such as benzopyrene, benzene, carbon disulphide (CS2), carbonyl sulphide (COS) and toluene; metals such as mercury, arsenic and chromium; sour gas with Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2); Nitrogen oxides (NOx); Carbon dioxide (CO2); and methane (CH4) which contribute to the greenhouse gases.