Guyanese must have access to oil production data – former TIGI Exec

Apr 09, 2022 News

---

Kaieteur News – “The farmer must know how much of which crops he reaps, and the shopkeeper how much of which items he sells.”
So says former Executive Member of the Transparency Institute Guyana Inc (TIGI), Mr. Alfred Bhulai.

Bhulai in a letter to this publication on Friday explained that Guyanese are paying for the Liza Destiny and Liza Unity Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels operating in the Stabroek Block. He noted however, that citizens are completely unaware of what value they are getting for their dollars, as information pertaining to the levels of production among others, are not readily available for public scrutiny.
Presently, the public is free to view the revenue accumulated from oil production, through the Ministry of Finance’s website, however there are no reports on how much of the resource is being removed from below the seafloors, as well as other technical data.
Bhulai has been vocal on several matters pertaining to the environment, but while serving on the watchdog organization, he detailed that a one hour meeting was held with the subsidiary company of ExxonMobil, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), on February 12, 2021, during which the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Alistair Routledge pointed out that the company wanted to be transparent.
However, when questions were put to the company, it said that the details would be shared with the government. Unfortunately, after waiting for a full year for those details, Bhulai detailed that his hopes of accessing the same faded.

He said on March 26 last year, after waiting in vain for EEPGL to send the requested recording of the Zoom meeting, TIGI directed questions in writing to the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, which were copied to the EPA. One year later, the advocate said he is yet to receive an answer to his email.
Importantly, he shared that the body was seeking continuous data on production, storage, and offloading of oil and water, and on the reinjection of water and gas, which are the business of the FPSOs, being paid for by Guyana.
“Surely, the owners are entitled to know what is going on in the business. Our business managers, viz., our governments, are supposed to manage the business operators, Exxon, to give account of the business to us. We asked for chemical analyses to know the nature of the oil, water, and gas coming from the wells, and for when what are stored, offloaded, reinjected, flared and vented,” Bhulai explained.
Additionally, TIGI was seeking production quantities, since oil, gas and associated substances can endanger the environment for Guyana and the Caribbean, he said, adding that as responsible business owners, we must not only assess the danger but also prepare for it.
Bhulai said that TIGI asked for the quantities on a daily basis to prevent the possibility of their subsequent alteration. He argued that “all production (data) must be known” and that “the people paying for it must know what they are paying for and be able to inspect production at any time”.
While pointing to the importance of being aware of such variables, the environmentalist highlighted that the process flow and rates must be known. “If there is a spill, we will also be able to estimate it from the rate at the source. When gas is flared or vented, as responsible stewards of the Earth, we have to know how much of what is damaging the environment.”
“Pressure is a primary operating parameter, from well to surface to storage and offloading, and the immediate source of danger. If pressures cannot be controlled then big bad things happen. Compressors fail and may lead to venting if not shutdown. We must know pressures. Temperatures are primary indicators of the health of the machines and are an important operating parameter. The temperatures of coolants discharged into the ocean should also be known for its effect on the ocean vicinity,” the former TIGI executive reasoned.
He was keen to note in his letter to the editor that the regulator body, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seems to be trying its best, pointing to the improved measures for monitoring offshore operations.
Bhulai related, “I was pleased to read in February this year that the EPA can monitor, but what they monitored was not shared with me, despite my asking…there are some who will ask why it is my business to know the travails of the EPA and other similar public bodies. The answer is that, I have deliberately devoted my life to education in Guyana, more specifically, technical education. There were times when I had no answer to convince graduates to remain or return to Guyana. I had thought that the politicization of technical jobs ended in 1992, but it restarted shortly thereafter, and by the 2000s, even free advice was routinely ignored. There were exceptions, but in general, technical people had to take orders from bad taskmasters, so the exodus continues, because the ambitious young scientist or engineer did not want a CV populated with incomplete or bad projects.”
In a brief interview with this newspaper yesterday, the head of the EPA, Mr. Kemraj Parsram explained that the agency is not required by law to publish such data, but it has been verifying each drop of oil pumped by the oil companies.
He assured, “We have remote real time data from Liza Destiny minute by minute and data on flaring is also accessible.” The new programme he said has been in effect since the end of January but remains in testing.
Mr. Parsram noted that in addition to remote monitoring of the operations, the EPA would also conduct in person audits on a regular basis.
As it relates to the public accessing such information, the EPA boss said that while the law governing the agency does not make the publication of such information mandatory, the data can be shared upon request.

 

---

---