Exxon’s flaring info not updated on website

Dec 29, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The high levels of gas flaring by oil giant ExxonMobil has been a sore issue for Environmentalists and Civil Society Activists here.

However, the Guyana Government has taken a different approach to the matter, allowing the company to burn the excess gas but pay a paltry fine for doing so. After months of demanding that the oil production data be shared with the public, the government finally directed the media to a website in August to access the information, usually updated at the end of every month.

Notably, this website provides key updates on the number of barrels of oil produced at the Liza One and Liza Two operations in the Stabroek Block, as well as the daily reported amount of gas produced, gas injected, flared gas and gas used for fuel. It also gives an overview on the Brent Crude prices and the amount of water produced and injected.

A graph on the Ministry of Natural Resources website, last updated on July 12, 2022, depicting the amount of gas injected, flared, and used.

While data as recent as November 30, 2022 is available for public scrutiny on all the other aspects of oil production, flaring statistics for the past four months have not been uploaded to the portal. In fact, the last published gas data on the site is dated July 12, 2022. Nonetheless, data was uploaded that depicts the amount of gas produced daily during the offshore production of oil in the Stabroek Block.

It is unclear as to why the flaring statistics are not being made public as Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, did not respond to queries relating to the issue yesterday.

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.

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 in late July this year that the company told members of the media that the equipment was finally replaced.

The Environmental Protection Agency (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 chart that shows the amount of gas produced daily offshore Guyana during oil production activities

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. The media was first directed to the website in August by the Ministry of Natural Resources, amid pressure from transparency activists on the release of data relating to oil production here. See link attached below to access the website. https://petroleum.gov.gy/data-visualization?tid=All