Neither fish nor fowl

Jul 21, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The seventh offshore oil project aptly named, Hammerhead, can be another hard blow to the head of Guyanese. From the fisherfolk who operate on the high seas to the consuming public that has to do with less while paying more. This seventh oil project can be seventh heaven, it doesn’t have to be a seventh circle of hell for citizens. Once ExxonMobil takes note of what its Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) have cautioned and responds like a true partner of Guyana, things could be positive. When produced water is released overboard daily in the hundreds of thousands of gallons, there is the high probability that marine species will dwindle, eventually die.

ExxonMobil’s own Project Summary for Hammerhead is clear: “The Project could have localised impacts to marine water quality in the project development area from discharge of drill cuttings and from routine operational and hydrotesting discharges. The Project could potentially impact marine water quality in the Project area of interest (AOI) as a result of non-routine, unplanned events (e.g., spill or release).”

In layman’s language, when dangerous substances, some liquids, trace amounts of some heavy metals, and naturally radioactive matter, are released into Guyana’s waters around the Hammerhead operational area, the result can be damaging to marine water quality, marine habitats and life, and wildlife. Fisherfolks have borne the brunt of the impacts of these discharges of chemicals and other material at differing temperatures. Longer times at sea, skimpier catch, costlier trips, and lesser returns for their hard and dangerous work. The fish consuming population of Guyana has noticed the scarcity in quantity of fish available when compared to previous times, and the lower quality (size and so forth). Guyanese pay more for the fish that they get and, as with many other issues of importance elsewhere in the local environment, they grin and bear, keeping their disappointments and resentments bottled up inside.

Fisherfolk and their families now know what it is to live with continuing economic squeezes. Their once lucrative business, passed down from generation to generation, is no longer a rewarding proposition as before. The small group of helpers who assemble daily to prep newly caught fish for shoppers at the wharves has also encountered a disruption and decline in their level of business. The need for their unskilled but necessary labor has declined. The small shopkeepers and vendors who sell food as part of their business compete for whatever quantities comes in with the boats, are forced to deal with higher prices, which they pass on to their customers of fish and bread, or fishcake, or other finished food products with fish at the center. With prices higher and a hard cost of living environment already a trial, vendors face new realities. For example, not selling out their day’s fish offerings as quickly, or all of them, due to the higher prices that they must charge to make a decent profit. Previous customers hunt for a more affordable non-fish snack or meal.

To some extent, all that has been outlined above have been editorialized on more than one occasion. An encouraging reaction, an honest one that seeks to address the issue, from the government and policy planners is still to come. ExxonMobil knows what one option is to reduce the amount of harmful material that is pumped overboard. EIAs that the company commissioned before for the six prior oil projects have identified reinjecting of the hot, toxic materials into the wells. For sure, it costs money, but that should not be all that matters to the company in the march of progress and the rush for profits. The Government of Guyana has a vested interest in working with ExxonMobil to tamp down to some extent, the more significant the better, the amount of produced water that is dumped into our waters. The interests of the fishing sector and other segments of Guyana’s population are under severe pressure. Currently, hundreds of thousands of gallons of harmful substances daily end up overboard from the wells in operations. We do not think that this must be an all-or-none situation, and that some combination of reinjection and the amounts pumped overboard would be better for Guyanese struggling with negative oil impacts.

Editorial, ExxonMobil, Guyanese, Hammerhead, project

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