− following stakeholder meeting with Exxon top brass
In light of the arrangement whereby oil giant ExxonMobil provides daily updates on operations offshore Guyana to the Government, Transparency Institute Guyana Incorporated (TIGI) has since written to the Government to get their hands on that data.
According to the letter seen by this publication, TIGI Secretary Alfred Bhulai wrote to Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat requesting that his Ministry provide information on Exxon’s operations to the organisation in the form of a spreadsheet.
It was not specified whether this data surrounds oil production on the Liza Destiny Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel or Exxon’s exploration efforts. According to Bhulai, however, TIGI was told by Exxon Country Manager Alastair Routledge himself during a stakeholder meeting that the Government would have all the information.
“So, we should like to take up Mr Routledge on the transparency and accountability by asking you, our Government, to provide us the information we seek. Just fill in the table in an Excel sheet,” Bhulai explained.
“The technical operations manager at the same stakeholder meeting said it was complicated but the data has to be there for obvious control purposes, so I am adding a simplified scheme of some of what the table requires. Both the scheme and the table are based on the law of conservation of matter and energy.”
According to the TIGI Secretary, a request was made from Esso Exploration Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) for a process flow diagram of the operations as well as the recording of the stakeholder meeting.
TIGI Secretary Alfred Bhulai
“Should you require elucidation of our request for information and the importance of having it, please contact us forthwith,” Bhulai further explained.
Guyana has been receiving regular updates from ExxonMobil. However, in the wake of the malfunction of its gas compressor on board the Liza Destiny FPSO, the Natural Resources Ministry itself had announced that it was receiving daily updates on the situation from Exxon.
After being sent all the way to Germany for repairs for several weeks and only returning recently, Exxon had announced last month that the gas compressor on the Liza Destiny had once again failed, resulting in oil production having to be reduced to 30,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
Exxon had revealed that as it was conducting the final testing phase of the reinstalled flash gas compressor and other components of the system on the Liza Destiny FPSO, it encountered an additional problem with the discharge silencer.
The US oil giant noted that a team from SBM Offshore, Germany manufacturer MAN Energy Solutions and ExxonMobil were on site to assess repairs with support from engineering experts in Europe and the USA.
However, Exxon has since raised its oil production output to between 100,000 and 110,000 barrels of oil per day. Additionally, Exxon has committed to flare no more than 15 million cubic square feet of gas per day.
“We have reduced production to a minimum level that mitigates formation of hydrates in subsea systems, maintains gas injection and fuels gas to the power generators, and minimises flare,” the company had said.
