Head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Oil & Gas department, Joel Gravesande, said the agency now has live access to near real-time data on flaring events at ExxonMobil’s operations at the offshore Liza Destiny floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.
He made the comment during a recent media sensitisation forum at the regulator’s Sophia, Georgetown office.
“We have live access to near real-time data to all flaring events on the FPSO. We could see the volume of gas that is flared from the high-pressure flares and the low-pressure flares, the cumulative, the real time volume and of course, the prior day’s volume of gas flared.”
Displaying the platform that the agency’s officers log into to monitor different data sets provided by ExxonMobil, Gravesande revealed that the operation became up and running earlier this month, and is currently in its testing phase. Several other government agencies have access to this platform, Gravesande revealed, regarding their mandate.
The data on flaring is just one aspect of monitoring the EPA can now do in real-time, as the government ramps up regulation to ensure the environment is protected.
“Some of the aspects that we monitor are chemical spills, if there any chemical spills, fires, hydrocarbon gas releases, oil spill, illnesses, injuries, cooling water, if there is any visible sheen when the cooling water is discharged, and of course, black water, if there is any solids or discoloration.” Gravesande said.
The EPA also receives daily and monthly reports from the operator, against which it can compare this data. Prior to the introduction of this platform, reports were the only way for the EPA to receive information on Liza Destiny operations, apart from a handful of trips the EPA fielded offshore.
From Gravesande’s explanation, it is understood that the EPA can make offshore visits freely but that the COVID-19 pandemic has implications which make regular visits impractical. He said there have been about five visits, mostly during the late 2020 and early 2021 period.
In the future, ExxonMobil intends to lay a fiber optic cable network to link its onshore and offshore facilities. In the interest of providing verifiable monitoring of offshore operations, the government intends to capitalise on this mechanism by establishing a date centre.
The Government of Guyana remains committed to providing prudent regulation and management of the oil and gas industry.
