Primary stakeholders remain in the dark on Wales gas project

May 10, 2022 News

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By Davina Bagot

Kaieteur News – ExxonMobil is pressing ahead with its planned stakeholder consultations in the various administrative regions that are likely to be impacted by the Wales Gas-to-Energy project on the West Bank of Demerara, but in doing so, the oil company has no plan to meet directly with the residents of Crane and the Canal Polders – those who are likely to be most affected.

In its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), Exxon’s consultant, the Environmental Resources Management (ERM), noted that robust public consultations were done for the developer to not only gather information to inform the study, but also to understand stakeholder concerns. However, the document states that engagements were held with the government and agencies related to the offshore activities while surveys of businesses and households within and around the direct area of influence (AOI) were conducted.
The Consultant explained that 11 in-person public scoping consultations took place in Regions One to Six, and two virtual public scoping consultation meetings. In addition, 36 representatives from the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in Region Three were engaged while 150 businesses in Regions Three and Four were surveyed along with 370 individuals in Region Three during the 2021 socioeconomic household surveys, including 122 individuals categorised as members of vulnerable groups.
Importantly, in volume three of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the Consultant explained that “key informant stakeholders that have been engaged to date include, but are not limited to: African Culture Development Association, Association of Trawler Owners and Seafood Processors, Big Bird & Sons Fishing Complex (Charity), Bureau of Statistics, Centre for Local Business Development (CLBD), Conservation International (CI), Department of Tourism, Fishing Cooperatives (e.g., Lima Fishermen’s Development Co-op, Georgetown Fishermen’s Co-op Society Ltd., Parika Fishermen’s Development Co-op, etc.), Georgetown-based real estate agents, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha,” and a number of other organisations. It, however, made no mention of engaging communities that will be impacted by the project.
To this end, one farmer whose land will be directly impacted by the pipeline for the project and who objected to the community consultations now being conducted by Exxon said, “I don’t see in the document any Canal Number 2 nor Crane (consultations)…they are saying that it is a furtherance of or just a general educational programme for their EIA which was submitted already, what I want to know is what is the purpose of it. Are they planning to do an addendum to the document or is this just a general informational set of meetings?”
The farmer and attorney, Elizabeth Hughes, had written to ExxonMobil Guyana President, Alistair Routledge, as well as the Head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kemraj Parsram on May 5, where she requested that the consultations on the project be conducted after the 60 days public review period, to afford stakeholders “quiet time” to understand the voluminous impact assessment, with just about 5,906 combined pages of technical information.
On Sunday, Exxon made it clear that it will be proceeding with its consultations as planned.
As such, the attorney, in an exclusive interview, with Kaieteur News on Monday reasoned, “If it is just a general thing why does it have to be done now? Why wasn’t it done before (the EIA was submitted) or why can’t it be done before the 60 days period? They will have enough time within which they can do their general hoorah so this has no fundamental, unless they plan on doing an addendum. They have not said in any of the statements I have seen so far that that is their plan. They are talking about informing people who don’t have access to the documents that they would be aware, but what is the point of being aware if it has no basis or no substantial effect on their already submitted EIA and EIS?”
She argued that there is no point of engaging the public when Exxon has chosen to ignore the very concerns of the primary stakeholders, who remain worried about their safety.
Over the next two weeks, the oil company will be visiting communities in Regions One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six to host meetings with the public. In Region Three, where the pipeline will be laid, three meetings will be held at the Leonora Technical Institute, West Demerara Secondary School and at the Patentia Primary School. No consultations will take place in the direct AOI.
In this regard, the attorney told this publication that even though some lands are expected to be acquired to facilitate the project, residents are yet to be engaged.
“So the people in the area don’t know, we see people coming in and doing stuff, they keep walking around and they have their helicopters and planes surveying or looking at the place but there has been no contact with the people in the area about what they plan to do,” Hughes insisted.
The project
The project will involve capturing associated gas produced from crude oil production operations on the Liza Phase 1 (Destiny) and Liza Phase 2 (Unity) Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, transporting approximately 50 million standard cubic feet per day.
Construction will begin after the company receives all necessary authorisations, with a target date of August 2022 for start of NGL Plant site preparation, and will take approximately three years. The combined offshore and onshore pipeline system is targeted to be ready to deliver rich gas by the end of 2024, and the NGL Plant is targeted to be operational by mid-2025. The project has a planned life cycle of at least 25 years.
The aspect of the project for which the oil company is responsible, that is to say, the installation of the offshore and onshore pipelines, is set to cost a whopping US$1.3B.

 

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