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EPA kicks off 60-days comments period on Exxon’s 7th project without publishing environmental study
Feb 17, 2025 News
Kaieteur News-The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Sunday announced the commencement of a 60-days comments period on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) it said was submitted by the developer, ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) for a seventh project, Hammerhead.
Although the comments period legally commenced on February 16, 2025, according to a Notice by the regulator, the documents which the public is expected to submit comments on, were not made available on the EPA’s website on Sunday.
Map showing the location of the Hammerhead project offshore Guyana
In its Notice published in Kaieteur News, the regulator said, “In accordance with Section 11(10) of the Environmental Protection Act, Cap.20:05 (as amended in 2005) Laws of Guyana, members of the public have sixty (60) days from the date of publication of this Notice (February 16, 2025), to review said EIA/EIS and make written submissions to the Environmental Protection Agency as they consider appropriate.”
Comments should be addressed to the Executive Director, Environmental Protection Agency, Ganges Street, Sophia, Georgetown.
ABOUT HAMMERHEAD
In the Project Summary submitted by Exxon to the EPA, the company explained that the project is expected to add 120,000 to 180,000 barrels of oil per day production capacity. The Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel will be capable of storing approximately 1.4 to 2 million barrels of oil. Third-party oil tankers will be scheduled to offload the oil from the FPSO, making the oil available for export to the international market.
Hammerhead 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.
HAMMERHEAD LAWSUIT
In December 2024, Kaieteur News reported that two citizens filed legal action against the EPA for failing to ensure the impacts from the planned development is properly assessed.
Attorneys-at-law, Melinda Janki, Tim Prudhoe, Anna-Kay Brown and Suzanne Bullen are representing the plaintiffs, Wintress Morris and Joy Marcus. In a statement, the citizens explained that the EPA issued a Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Hammerhead Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) which does not take into account the impact of greenhouse gas pollution from burning the associated oil and gas from the proposed development.
According to Morris and Marcus, their lawyer, Melinda Janki had written several letters to the Executive Director of the Agency, Kemraj Parsram, reminding him that the TOR for the Hammerhead EIA must identify, describe and evaluate the direct and indirect effects of the project. They noted their disappointment that the Executive Director ignored their lawyer’s letters and did not correct the terms of reference for the EIA.
Following the filing of that legal EPA on January 9, 2025 announced that it amended the Terms and Scope for the seventh oil project.
It said the Terms and Scope (T&S) was updated to specifically include Scope 3 emissions, following further feedback from stakeholders.
Kaieteur News understands that the matter is still before the Court.
(EPA kicks off 60-days comments period on Exxon’s 7th project without publishing environmental study)
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