EPA’s poor response to oil spill exposes Guyana’s unpreparedness – former Executive Director  

Sep 22, 2022 News

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Kaieteur News – Almost two weeks after American oil major, ExxonMobil reported a ‘one barrel’ spill at the Liza Two operation in the Stabroek Block, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not come out to tell the nation whether its investigation has confirmed the minor spillage as reported by the company.

To this end, the former EPA head, Dr. Vincent Adams says this occurrence shows how grossly underprepared Guyana is for petroleum production even as it embarks on an ambitious campaign to speed up these operations.

In an invited comment, Dr. Adams, a Petroleum Engineer explained that the agency’s failure to make a pronouncement on the spill days later paints a gloomy picture of what the nation can expect should a spill of greater scale occur. Nonetheless, he said, “It’s not about the size of a spill it’s just the culture. It reflects on the conduct of operations and the safety culture, and if you miss on the small things that’s how you get all of these major spills and disasters. All of them that we’ve had in the world they occurred because of missing just simple things.”

When he was asked if he believes that the investigations should have been completed by now, Dr. Adams responded in the affirmative. In fact, he argued, “The very next day or as soon as possible you have to send a team out there. It’s of high urgency and to me, if it is what they say it is, it shouldn’t be complicated so that shouldn’t be taking any time…all it takes is a single day’s visit on the FPSO. You conduct your interviews with all the employees and you make your assessment. Based on what they tell you then you come up and confirm whether it’s one barrel or whether it’s 100.”

The former EPA head believes that Guyana is in fact telling Exxon that it is not serious about oil spills and being accountable to the people by failing to provide its own report. As such, he signaled, “If we get a spill it’s going to be a disaster because we are not prepared to handle one to be honest.”

Earlier this year, the EPA said it acquired equipment to conduct remote monitoring of Exxon’s operation however Dr. Adams believes that this type of oversight is not what is required. According to him, “You don’t need satellite monitoring or something from the skies to tell you there is a spill in the ocean. You need to be down there on the (Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessel) FPSO and prevent it and that monitoring is not going to see the operations in the control room itself whereas you need to have the eyes of the people there to monitor that. A spill is after the fact. It’s nice to see the oil spill but when it does happen it’s too late so what purpose is that serving? Seeing it is not going to help you so it doesn’t add a whole lot of value.”

He was keen to note that even though the EPA has been using that technology, it is yet to determine the amount of crude that was spilled recently.  He said, “We are depending on them and we cannot dispute whatever they are saying. They reported its one barrel, maybe it is, maybe it it’s not but we have no way to confirm it, whereas if you’re on the ship you know exactly what happened.”

In addition to having a 24/7 presence on the FPSOs, the former EPA boss also highlighted the importance of having specialists to represent Guyana, since someone that lacks expertise can be baffled and intimidated by the information provided.

He pointed out that the control room allows for a ‘read out’ on how the operations are ongoing. “You have the pressure in every valve, you get the production, you see how it’s going, you get the temperatures and production everything right there and all of the data that we get, that’s where it comes from.”

Dr. Adams went on to explain, “If you do not have a safety background to understand the seriousness of it and let me just say it’s not about whether it’s one barrel, it’s not about the smallest amount…it’s just as serious as spilling any number of barrel because it tells you more than anything else as a precursor, it gives an indication of how they are operating. They are not following procedures, something went wrong there and it’s possible that they are under reporting the amount to us. So it should be taken seriously as serious as if its 1000 barrels spill or a million barrels.”

On September 10, ExxonMobil reported that the team on the Liza Unity FPSO observed a sheen on the water in the vicinity of the vessel on September 9, last. According to the oil company, initial investigations indicate that about one barrel of crude was released during a maintenance activity on the vessel. Further, the activity was immediately halted and the leak was cut off.

On Saturday, Exxon said, “additional surveillance by helicopter confirmed that there was no sheen in the area and only a light sheen was perceptible approximately 20 km (13 miles) North West of the vessel. By midday on September 10, a support vessel in the area confirmed no further sign of a sheen.” ExxonMobil said there were no pictures of the spill, while the Executive Director of the EPA, Mr. Kemraj Parsram could only say that an investigation was being carried out. The Liza Unity FPSO started up production in February of this year. It is the country’s second FPSO to become operational – producing about 220,000 barrels of oil per day.

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