Latest update June 27th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 04, 2023 News
Kaieteur News – Guyana’s two oil producing vessels, the Liza Destiny and Liza Unity, continue to exceed their combined nameplate capacity, with over 400,000 barrels produced on February 24, 2023.
According to statistics produced by the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Liza Destiny produced 156,080 barrels while Liza Unity produced 246,000 barrels, bringing the total production level to 402, 080. On the last day of February, production hovered around 384,000 barrels of oil per day.
Production figures for March were not available up to the time of publication. Given the current performance of the two ships, when the third vessel, Prosperity, comes on stream this year, the country’s overall production could easily reach the 600,000 barrel per day mark. The Prosperity, as previously reported, will have an initial production target of 220,000 barrels of oil per day and an overall storage volume of around two million barrels.
While there have been concerns raised in the public domain about the implications of increasing the production, Head of the Environmental Production Agency (EPA), Kemraj Parsram has stressed that no increase in production occurs without thorough review by the regulators.
Parsram said, “In all of the environmental permits, one of the key requirements is that if there is any change to what was approved they (Exxon and partners) must seek approval from the EPA and in so doing, we will require information that will help assess if it will cause significant impacts before approving same.”
Head of the Oil and Gas Department, Joel Gravesande also confirmed this, noting that ExxonMobil’s subsidiary; Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) did seek permission before pumping more oil at its Stabroek Block operations. Gravesande said the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) makes two important points on production. “Both vessels which are floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facilities, can operate beyond design parameters. There is an operating parameter and a design parameter. The design for Destiny for example is about 150,000 barrels but it was operating at 120,000 barrels of oil per day…,” the official said. Gravesande said the consideration of impacts from a worst case scenario of an unmitigated oil spill is also considered in the EIA for the Liza Destiny at 200,000 to 300,000 barrels of oil per day. “So even the impacts are considered beyond the operating level and now they are at 150,000 barrels of oil per day. The emissions and impacts on water are all considered. When they requested to go to 150,000 we still required that a technical analysis done on the equipment to ensure there are no mishaps,” the Head of the Oil and Gas Department said.
Gravesande shared too that a Hazardous and Operability Study (HAZOP) was also done for government. This document outlines that the vessels could function at a higher production level. He added, “When the EIA was done, a lot of the data used were hypothetical data so what we ordered as well was an analysis of the effects based on real data which we have been gathering over the last two years for the Liza Destiny and over the last year for the Liza Unity. So we redid the water and air quality modeling and it was in keeping with the EIA.”
Gravesande said the foregoing is a testimony to the EPA’s commitment to ensure all boxes are checked when monitoring offshore oil and gas operations. The capacity of the EPA will be further heightened following an agreement that was signed between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Maxar Technologies, a world renowned provider of comprehensive space solutions and precise, geospatial intelligence. The two organizations inked a three-year contractual agreement for Maxar to provide environmental monitoring services for both offshore and terrestrial applications.
The Environmental Protection Agency will utilize Maxar’s Crow’s Nest Maritime Monitoring and Security products to support offshore petroleum monitoring. It will also use the Crow’s Nest Maritime Tipping and Cueing Service, which leverages Maxar’s very-high resolution optical satellites, to monitor drilling vessels for regulatory compliance and safety. It will also use the Crow’s Nest Multi-Sensor Oil Detection Service to identify potential spills. The agreement with Guyana marks Maxar’s first Crow’s Nest contract in Latin America and the Caribbean. Maxar Technologies Inc.’s three-year contract with Guyana costs US$ 1,160,714.0. It will be taken from a US$20M World Bank loan which the country received back in 2019.
This country does not hear anything about oil from the PPP or the PNC
Jun 27, 2024
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