EPA, ExxonMobil begin consultation on gas-to-energy impact assessment

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and ExxonMobil’s local subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) have begun a public scoping campaign ahead of the US oil company embarking on an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the gas-to-energy project.
The US$900 million project, which is a manifesto promise of the PPP/C Government, will cut power cost in half and lower emissions.
According to a DPI report, the EPA had decided that an EIA is necessary to determine the potential impacts of the project, before it considers EEPGL’s application for environmental authorisation. The agency has published a project summary which includes technical information to be used to evaluate the application.
EPA’s Head of Environmental Communication Education Awareness Programme (ECEAP), Candacie Thompson, during a virtual briefing Thursday, said the requirement for the EIA was placed on public notice on June 27, for 28 days. The public scoping meetings will continue until July 22, with in-person meetings along the coast, and a second virtual meeting on July 15.
Members of the public are allowed to make their contributions for considerations in the EIA. Thompson said public participation is integral to the process.
Project Environmental and Regulatory Manager, Erik DeMicco represented EEPGL during Thursday’s briefing. He presented the project’s summary and components. This included the preliminary list of resources and receptors which will be included in the assessment.
The project includes the construction and operation of a pipeline from the Liza Phases 1 and 2 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels to an onshore natural gas liquids and natural gas processing plant. The pipeline will transport up to 50 million standard cubic feet of gas per day to the plant.
According to the summary, the plant will, in turn, drop the pressure of the gas, dehydrate the gas, separate propane, butane and pentanes, and treat the gas to the specification needed for the power plant.
The plant is expected to add some 250 MW of power to the national grid, starting late 2024.
The Irfaan Ali-led Administration has touted the US$900 million gas-to-shore project as a game-changing initiative to boost Guyana’s generation of power, which has been highly unreliable and costly for decades.
One of the main objectives of the project is to significantly reduce the cost of electricity.
President Ali had previously said the gas-to-shore pipeline, which will land at Crane on the West Coast of Demerara (WCD), would lead to big industrial development taking place in Region Three that is linked to not only power generation and a planned power plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
Exxon has said that around 30 to 35 million cubic feet of natural gas would be required for the gas-to-shore project.
In previously-released data, Norwegian research company, Rystad Energy, had indicated that less than 20 per cent of the 1.8 billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent (BOE) discovered last year was gas.