Impossible to trust ExxonMobil’s claim of adhering to flaring levels – former EPA Head

Aug 03, 2022 News

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as oil giant hides data on Liza One project…

Kaieteur News – Former Head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams does not believe that the American oil and gas giant, ExxonMobil has indeed achieved the flaring targets set out in the Liza Two permit, as the company is reluctant to share the total volume of gas flared at the Liza One field.

ExxonMobil through its subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) had been flaring associated gas at the Liza One field soon after the startup of oil production in 2019, owing to its failed gas compressor. It was only last week that the company told members of the media that the equipment was finally replaced. Notably, the EPA had tweaked the permit governing the operations in the field, to remove a no-flaring policy, thus allowing the oil company to flare gas and pay a fine in return. To that end, it was reported by ExxonMobil’s Production Manager, Mike Ryan that a total of some US$10 million in flaring fees had been paid over to the entity. However, when he was asked to disclose the total volume of gas flared at the Liza Destiny Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel over the two-year period, he carefully dodged the question.

The Production Manager would only repeat that the company maintained full compliance with the EPA’s permitted parametres for flaring which was between 15-7 million cubic feet of gas per day.

The Production Manager said, “We have met our expectation of delivering it (the new compressor), installing it, and safely starting it up in July. We have achieved background flare of less than one million standard cubic feet of gas. It is a remarkable accomplishment by many people who have been relentlessly pursuing this. We have also gone 1000 days without any injury which is really world class performance…”

Meanwhile, on the second FPSO, the Liza Unity, he said, it has achieved background flare within a record 60 days.

To that end, Dr. Adams has pointed out, “there is no way of trusting what you say, since you dodge questions about your flaring data, and you stopped publishing these data since last year for obvious reasons.”

The former EPA head said it was important to note that before the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) took office and allowed unlimited flaring, the oil company had promised only one-day of flaring but this turned out to be close to three years.

Furthermore, Dr. Adams reasoned, “Mr. Ryan refuses to answer the question as to how much gas is flared, but goes on to shamelessly brag that, “We have met our expectation of installing the compressor and achieved background flare in July…It is a remarkable accomplishment…We have gone 1000 days without any injury”. Is Mr. Ryan really calling, taking almost three years to fix a compressor their ‘expectation’ and ‘remarkable accomplishment’! Even though they are on record committing to no flaring from day one.”

Even worse, the specialist said, is that the government has quietly accepted “our expectation” and “remarkable performance” by the oil company.

Dr. Vincent Adams noted too, “We must remind Exxon that this oil and gas belong to the people and not Exxon; that all data belong to the people and not Exxon…”

Flaring, as the word suggests, is the process of burning associated gas that is brought up during oil production. Notably, this process emits harmful gases into the atmosphere that can, not only affect seabirds and marine creatures, but also climate change. In addition, it must be noted that there are alternative options available to the oil company to avoid flaring, such as gas re-injection; however, Exxon has publicly made it clear that it is cheaper for the company to flare the associated gas, rather than re-inject it into the wells.

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 in 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.

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 contributes to the greenhouse gases.

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