ExxonMobil monitoring own discharge of oil in produced water – EPA Head reveals

Jun 04, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kemraj Parsram recently revealed that the operator of the oil rich Stabroek Block has been feeding the regulator with information relative to the oil concentration in the treated produced water being discharged daily.

Produced water is a liquid that is extracted during oil production activities. It contains dissolved mineral salts, or may be mixed with organic compounds such as acids, waxes, and mineral oils. It may also be mixed with inorganic metals and byproducts or with trace amounts of heavy metals and naturally-occurring radioactive materials, the US Department of Energy said in a research paper. It is also usually very high in temperature, and can be deadly to marine organisms.

Exxon is therefore required to, in accordance with its Environmental Permits, treat the produced water before it is discharged into the ocean. To ensure the discharge meets the required standard however, the EPA assesses the data it received from the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels operated by Exxon.

Parsram while appearing as a guest on the Energy Perspectives Podcast shared the progress made by the agency over the past three years, especially in its oversight of the burgeoning petroleum industry.

In the interview released on Sunday, Parsram noted that the EPA launched a third water quality sensor late last month to monitor the surface water. According to him, “That is within our key surface waters and offshore as well. The plan is to put these sensors that measure the water quality or measure pollutants in water, in the surface water, in our rivers and we can actually at our offices or on our mobile phones we can actually see real time, what is the quality of those parameters – for example turbidity, temperature, ph, total dissolved solids- these are key parameters that indicate the health of our waters.”

This system, he said, was funded by the Government of Guyana (GoG) through budgetary allocations to the agency.  Presently, the sensors are located at Bartica, the Demerara River and at Saxacalli; another sensor is to be placed at the Kaieteur National Park or at the Iwokrama Centre.  Parsram said the deployment of the sensors will be expanded in the future.

When it comes to the agency’s real-time monitoring of the water quality near ExxonMobil’s offshore operations in the Stabroek Block, the EPA said it is utilising data transmitted by the oil company’s FPSOs in operation.   He said, “On the FPSOs as well there are sensors as part of the operator’s responsibility that they measure for example the concentration of oil in produced water that is being discharged.”

Parsram continued, “Remember they (Exxon) have to treat that produced water before they discharge and they have to bring the oil in the water content in alignment with the World Bank IFC Standards, which is 49 mg per day or an average 29 milligrams per liter per month.”  The Executive Director of the EPA went on to explain that the sensors on the FPSOs then feed the information to the EPA. “So we have a live platform at the EPA where we actually can see, minute by minute, the concentration of oil in produced water,” he noted.

Former Head of the EPA, Dr. Vincent Adams had previously raised concerns regarding the concentration of oil in produced water being dumped by ExxonMobil. He pointed out that while the multinational corporation should be made to re-inject the produced water into the wells, the government has reversed the environmental regulations to allow the company to instead dump this waste overboard.

The Petroleum and Environmental Engineer explained, “We have got all that water being dumped into the ocean instead of re-injecting so over the life, and when we see the EPA send out this narrative here about they are treating the water, there are still oil in the water and if you calculate that small concentration over the life of the field, we will have had hundreds of thousands of barrels of pure oil dumped in the ocean with that water.”

The Petroleum Engineer therefore noted, “So when they talk about its only 29 milligrams per liter, it adds up. For every million barrel of water that is dumped, 29 to 40 barrels of oil is going there. So if you add it up, you are going to be dumping hundreds of thousands of pure oil into that ocean, not to mention the toxic metals such as led, mercury and radioactivity, natural radioactivity that is coming from the water from the earth.” Simply put, Dr. Adams said for every million barrel of produced water that is discharged, 29 barrels of oil is also being released into the ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• Discharge, dump, EPA, Monitoring, produced, water

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