ExxonM yet to decide how to handle produced water in 7th project

Jul 23, 2024 News

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…says will not discharge water unless it meets requirement of environmental permit

Kaieteur News – Global Projects Cost Engineering Manager for Exxon Guyana Rebecca Cvikota during the opening of the public consultations for Exxon’s seventh project Hammerhead said that they would not be committing to any specific ways in which they will be handling the produced water.

The official was asked by this publication if the company had plans to reinject the produced water from the project and if not can she say the effect it can have on rising sea levels if not reinjected. She said that, “Produced water has been a topic we have been heavily involved in working very closely with the EPA and MNR to do studies on and assess and look at. So for Hammerhead we are still in the early phases I wouldn’t commit to any specific ways in which we are going to handle the produced water. What I will say now is the studies we are doing are informing those types of decisions and it is international practice to discharge produced water offshore.” Cvikota explained that the water is treated and they will not be discharging any water unless it meets the requirement of the environmental permit and is treated sufficiently. “That is part of our practices that’s one of the things that we are monitoring very closely to ensure that we have safe operations,” she added.

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.

Due to its toxicity, this substance is best re-injected into the wells, though this may be a costly exercise. Exxon has sounded the warning before, in six EIAs for its previously sanctioned projects, of the dangers associated with the dumping of produced water into the ocean. Produced water discharges from each of the projects vary. For instance, the sixth project – Whiptail – which will produce 250,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) will also produce 200,000 barrels of produced water daily which will be dumped into the ocean.

On the other hand, the fifth project Uaru which is being designed to produce 250,000 bpd will see the discharge or 300,000 bpd of produced water.  Prior to the dumping of produced water offshore, it is treated on the FPSOs to ensure it aligns with the industry standards, as required by the EPA.  The Permits granted to Exxon by the regulator requires the operator to treat the substance to ensure “oil content specification of produced water to be discharged does not exceed 42 mg/l on a daily basis or 29 mg/l on a monthly average”.

Dr. Ulric Trotz during an interview with Kaieteur News earlier this year stressed the need for stringent monitoring of these discharges by the EPA.  He said, “Any sort of contamination in a pristine marine environment that provides so much to our livelihoods, our fisher folk, so much to our own nutritional diet with our dependence on marine sources for protein, for an environment that supports marine life, you think about turtle nesting facilities on Shell Beach- anything that disturbs that environment is not in our interest.”

Exxon’s admission

ExxonMobil acknowledged that discharges from the seventh project can potentially affect the quality of water and harm marine species and wildlife. This information is contained in the Project Summary submitted by Exxon to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The regulator has since instructed the company to conduct a thorough Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to study the likely damage that can be done to the environment by the project. This study will also highlight measures to mitigate those harmful impacts.

According to the Project Summary seen by this newspaper, “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 hydro-testing 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).” Drill cuttings and drill fluid discharges during the drilling of development wells; effluent discharges from cooling water and produced water; hydro-testing discharges and non-routine, unplanned events such as a spill can result in the release of dangerous substances that can affect marine life. Exxon said, “Increased total suspended solids concentrations, chemical concentrations, or temperature in water column has a potential to affect marine water quality and marine habitat quality and affect wildlife.”

Fishing industry

Meanwhile, on the vexed issue of the impacts of the project on the fishing industry, Projects Environmental and Regulatory Manager for ExxonMobil Guyana Mariya Skocik when asked about this explained that over the years they “have done a number of studies on fisheries in particular since 2018. Over like six years we visited a number of fishing landing sites and conducted several cycles of the study. What we are seeing is consistent with our prior environmental impact assessment.”

Furthermore she said: “during the presentation we mentioned that facilities are approximately 200 kilometers offshore, so the minor impacts that are possible are limited to that geographic location. So we have not seen any increase in impacts near shore in our studies.”

She also noted that if fisherfolk livelihoods are affected “there is an impact there would be a mechanism in place to submit those grievances and a process to follow through.”  Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kemraj Parsram had 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.

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. Parsram noted that the EPA launched a third water quality sensor late December 2023 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.

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• Exxon, Hammerhead, official, produced water, seventh project

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