Exxon hires same consultant to do EIA study for 7th oil project

Nov 20, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News-ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) has hired Environmental Resources Management (ERM) for a ninth time to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its offshore oil and gas operations in Guyana.

The Terms and Scope for the EIA of the seventh project- Hammerhead- prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indicates that ERM was approved by the regulator to undertake the study for the development.

To date, ERM has been contracted to conduct environmental studies for the Liza One, Liza Two, Payara, Yellowtail, Whiptail and Hammerhead projects in the Stabroek Block. The Consultant was also hired by Exxon to undertake environmental studies for a 36-well campaign in the Stabroek Block, the Gas-to-Energy pipeline project and a 12-well campaign in the Canje Block.

Concerns were previously raised regarding the selection process and utilization of this consultant for almost all of the oil company’s projects to date. In fact, it should be noted that Exxon outsourced another Consultant, Acorn International to conduct only one of its EIAs to date. The firm had completed environmental studies for the fifth offshore project, Uaru.

Exxon went back to ERM to conduct an EIA for the sixth project and now the seventh.

A group of Caribbean organizations had objected to the Yellowtail EIA done by ERM, insisting that the consultant group had been in fact been copying and pasting sections of their previous EIAs into new documents, without considering whether or not those assessments were done to honour the steps it had outlined regarding potential transboundary victims.

The group included the Caribbean Coastal Area Management (C-CAM) Foundation, The Jamaica Fish Sanctuary Network, Jamaica Environment Trust, Institute for Small Islands, Fishermen and Friends of the Sea and Freedom Imaginaries.

It was also reported that ERM hired experts to conduct those studies who have worked with the oil company for years. This was highlighted in the EIA completed by ERM for Exxon’s Gas-to-Energy project to be constructed at Wales, West Bank Demerara.

According to the study, one of the experts at ERM, the Guyana Programme Lead, Partner-in-Charge, Mr. Todd Hall has over 25 years of broad experience in environmental consulting, focusing on environmental, social and health impact assessment, management plan development, multimedia permitting, site planning and licensing, remediation, and risk assessment.

His biography included in the EIA states that “Todd has worked with ExxonMobil for his entire career, from his first project involving a remedial investigation of a legacy ExxonMobil property, and he has led ERM’s programmes for ExxonMobil at multiple downstream facilities, legacy sites, LNG (Liquified natural gas) regasification facilities, and upstream exploration and development projects worldwide.”

An EIA is intended to highlight the potential impacts from a project, outline measures that will be taken to mitigate these harmful impacts as well as inform the public what actions will be taken to respond in the event of an accident.

Controversy

In December 2021, a group of Environmentalists wrote to the EPA requesting that it discloses the list of other qualified consultants, from which ERM was selected to conduct EIAs.

In the document seen by this publication, the experts Simone Mangal-Joly, Alfred Buhlai, Vanda Radzik, Janette Bulkan, Denuta Radzik, Jerry Jailall, Alissa Trotz and Maya Trotz questioned the independence of Exxon’s Consultant, ERM, since records at that time showed that the ExxonMobil subsidiary has only ever selected the ERM from a list of consultants, to conduct all its Environmental Impact Assessments and management plans.

Kaieteur News reported that one advocate, Simone Mangal-Joly, even questioned the independence of ERM.

She said, “There seems to be a long-term relationship between this firm, Esso [Exxon’s partner] and the Environmental Protection Agency in Guyana as it keeps selecting the same firm to do the study for Esso.”

According to Mangal, “the EPA Act requires that the firm is independent. You cannot claim independence when you have a long-term relationship doing all of the studies for the applicant [Esso] because you have a financial relationship now. This is a firm that established itself in Guyana and is doing all of Exxon’s work effectively. It is not independent and Guyanese need to look at the EPA for failing to do its duty,”
Emphasizing the law, Mangal noted that the relationship between the three entities leaves many questions.

“The EPA Act is very clear, there must be independence and that independence has to be judged on serious criteria… Do you really think a firm is independent when they keep doing the studies one after the other? Are they the only qualified firm to do the job over and over again? And why is Guyana’s EPA failing the nation by not looking into this practical pattern that it is responsible for?” questioned the environmentalist.

(Exxon hires same consultant to do EIA study for 7th oil project)

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• Consultant, EIA, EPA, study

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