While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been relatively quiet since news broke on Friday that a drum of oil had leaked in the Stabroek Block operations of ExxonMobil, the agency has since visited the site of the leak.
On Friday, ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) had announced that a drum of oil, from its Liza Unity FPSO vessel, had leaked into the ocean. At the time, Exxon had assured that the leak was contained and all agencies, including the EPA, had been notified.
Liza Destiny FPSO
While this publication was unable to make contact with EPA Head Kemraj Parsram and the agency is yet to make an official statement on the issue, a source confirmed to this publication that the agency visited the site.
According to the source, EPA officials visited the Liza Unity on Sunday, to do an independent check of the situation.
On Friday, Exxon had said that the leak occurred during maintenance activities on board the vessel. They said that as soon as it was discovered, all activity was halted while the leak was isolated and dealt with.
“On Friday, September 9, 2022, the team on the Liza Unity FPSO observed a sheen on the water in the vicinity of the vessel. Initial investigations indicate that approximately one barrel of crude oil was released during a maintenance activity on the vessel.”
“The activity was immediately stopped and the leak isolated. Earlier today (Saturday), additional surveillance by helicopter confirmed that there was no sheen in the area; only a light sheen was perceptible approximately 20 km (13 miles) North West of the vessel,” the company said, also assuring that its response teams will continue to monitor the situation closely.
There has never been a serious mishap involving oil exploration efforts in the Stabroek Block. Nevertheless, Exxon has been doing training sessions throughout the year, aimed at improving their response capabilities.
Only last month, a two-day emergency response training exercise was conducted for EEPGL staff at the Marriott hotel. During the training, EEPGL worked with The Response Group, a United States company specialising in crisis management. Among the areas that the training covered, is responses to different levels of crisis in EEPGL’s offshore activities, such as oil spills.
At the time, EEPGL Media and Communications Manager Janelle Persaud had explained that the company takes matters such as crisis response seriously, hence the regular training. She had explained that several similar training sessions were done during this year and another major training exercise will be done by this year end.
According to Persaud, EEPGL’s incident management team also has the Regional Response team to back them up in real life. Additionally, the regional response team will be arriving in Guyana for the final training session by this year end.
There is also a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, which was handed over in October 2020 by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) to Prime Minister, Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips. The plan was months in the making and involved the input of many key stakeholders including the Maritime Administrative Department (MARAD), Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and the Civil Defence Commission (CDC).
The National Emergency Oil Spill Plan was crafted with valuable inputs from the Guyana Marine Conservation Society, Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission, the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Shipping Association of Guyana, ExxonMobil, Tullow, GuyOil, Repsol, Shell, GAICO Construction and other stakeholders.
The United States has also been providing tactical and operational support to Guyana, when it comes to advancing and fortifying Guyana’s national response to oil spills. In June, the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) provided a recap on the series of training and support provided to 231 persons from over 30 agencies by the United States Coast Guard in building capacity to handle such matters.
From June 2021 to April 2022, these efforts have addressed gaps in Guyana’s management of any oil spill. (G3)
