New regulations coming for ship owners, seafarers

Oil and gas sector

The Maritime Administration Department has said that a new set of guidelines for seafarers will be introduced soon in light of the nascent oil and gas sector.
An official with the Department told this publication that shipowners will be lectured on the current regulations as well as new ones with regard to the Shipping Act.
These discussions will be fostered at a seminar on Thursday at Regency Suites. All shipowners and seafarers have been invited to attend the one-day event from 10:00h.
“The purpose of this seminar is to explain several new guidelines regarding the manning of vessels, the introduction of a new seaman’s card of competency and to clarify other pertinent regulations,” the Department stated.
According to the source, the Maritime Department recently held a stakeholder conference on the emerging oil sector but the Director of the agency, who is responsible for safety, decided to host yet another event which will address regulations along that line.
The discovery of oil offshore Guyana has already triggered changes in almost every sector of Guyana, as various activities are even being introduced to cater for the production of the massive natural resource sector.
Back in February, ExxonMobil made its 11th and 12th discoveries offshore Guyana at the Tilapia-1 and Haimara-1 wells in the southwest section of the Stabroek Block.
The Tilapia-1 is the fourth discovery in the Turbot area that includes Turbot, Longtail and Pluma discoveries. Tilapia-1 encountered approximately 305 feet (93 metres) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir and was drilled to a depth of 18,786 feet (5726 metres) in 5850 feet (1783 metres) of water.  The well is located approximately 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometres) west of the Longtail-1 well.
US oil giant ExxonMobil has revised the estimated gross recoverable resource from the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana to approximately 5.5 billion oil-equivalent barrels.
In the meantime, exploration activity in the Stabroek Block is continuing. The Noble Tom Madden drillship will next drill the Yellowtail-1 well, approximately six miles (10 kilometres) west of Tilapia-1 in the Turbot area while the Stena Carron drillship will return to the Longtail discovery to complete a well test.
Additionally, baseline 4-D seismic data acquisition is also underway.
The Liza Phase 1 development is progressing on schedule and is expected to begin producing up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day in early 2020, utilising the Liza Destiny floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit.
Furthermore, the Liza Phase 2 is awaiting Government and regulatory approval to use a second FPSO vessel designed to produce up to 220,000 barrels per day. Start-up is expected by mid-2022.
Meanwhile, a third development, Payara, is being planned, with start-up expected as early as 2023.