Exxon warns flaring and emissions from 7th project will take toll on Guyanese health

Jul 22, 2024 News

In January of 2023 it was reported that offshore flaring in Guyana peaked at 71.88 Million Standard Cubic Feet (MMSCF)

Kaieteur News – ExxonMobil’s seventh deepwater development in the Stabroek Block- Hammerhead- can contribute to health concerns in humans and wildlife exposed to certain activities relative to the project.

The company issued this warning in its Project Summary submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), made public on July 15. According to the document seen by this newspaper, “Air emissions resulting from the project have the potential to affect ambient air quality in the project area on a localized basis and to contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”

Activities from the project including flaring of associated natural gas; power generation; other marine vessel and support aircraft combustion; fugitive emissions from crude oil storage and offloading and miscellaneous fuel combustion sources, including incineration, deck cranes, and emergency generators among others can affect the air quality and climate.

To this end, the document states, “Localized, increased concentrations of criteria pollutants in ambient air could contribute to health concerns in exposed humans and wildlife. Combustion of hydrocarbons from project activities could contribute to GHG emissions.”

Notably, Exxon also cautioned in its Project Summary that the increased demand for limited emergency and health services in Guyana, and a slight increased risk of communicable disease transmission could potentially result from project activities and influence community health and wellbeing.

According to the oil company, “Introduction of limited levels of foreign specialized labor could potentially have community health and wellbeing impacts. The development could potentially impact community health and wellbeing in the Project AOI (Area of Influence) due to onshore traffic, social interaction, or as a result of non-routine, unplanned events (e.g., spill or release).”

It must be noted that ExxonMobil in another section of the Project Summary outlined a number of measures that will be employed to avoid these impacts. Among its plans are measures to minimize non-routine flaring during compression trips and maintenance. Flaring refers to the burning of gas associated with oil production. The safest but least cost effective option is for the gas to be re-injected into the wells. Another measure that will be taken by Exxon is the installation of waste heat recovery units (WHRUs) on turbine generators, where feasible, to reduce the demand of more power generation or fired heaters, thus decreasing fuel gas consumption.

Exxon also said it would “optimize gas turbine maintenance to ensure that gas turbines are not overhauled more often than needed, and also to ensure overhauls are completed at the right time, in alignment with other FPSO maintenance activities to reduce the need to flare.”

Meanwhile, to address the impacts on community health and wellbeing, the oil company committed to the implementation of a community safety program for potentially impacted schools and neighborhoods to increase awareness and minimize potential for community impacts due to vehicle incidents. The Hammerhead development will produce between 120,000 to 180,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). The project is located in the south central portion of the Stabroek Block, approximately 160 km from Georgetown. Current plans include drilling via drill ships to produce oil using approximately 14 to 30 production and injection wells. Production is expected to begin in 2029 subject to the necessary regulatory approvals and operate for at least 20 years.

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ExxonMobil, Flaring, Hammerhead, Health, impacts

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