– Gas-to-Shore Project Manager says tie-ins being designed
While the plan is to pump in gas from the Liza Phase 1 field for the Gas-to-Shore project, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) is catering for the possibility of future gas coming from beyond the current sources.
ExxonMobil’s Gas-to-Shore Manager Friedrich Krispin made this disclosure when he delivered remarks during the Guyana Basin Summit (GBS) that concluded last week. He noted that the company is catering for another floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel supplying gas for the project in the future.
Currently, the Liza Destiny FPSO is producing oil and gas in the Liza Phase 1, while the Liza Unity FPSO is producing in the Liza Phase 2. He explained that a tie-in, which is a connection between a pipeline and an existing pipeline system or facility, would have to be done offshore.
“There are no tie-ins on shore. So, if there is a tie-in to be made, it has to be done at the well’s district. So, if there is any other potential opportunity for users of the gas, it will have to be at the well’s district. Or someone will have to take that gas from there and run it somewhere else,” Krispin said.
“The reason I said tie-ins is we’re actually designing one or two tie-ins offshore in deep water. The reason we’re doing that is that there might be a potential in the future where, beyond Destiny and Unity, there may be another FPSO’s gas that needs to be tied in with that line. Or there may be another block in the area that wants to tie into that line. So, there are inlet tie-ins, but no offtake tie-ins at this point,” Krispin explained.
Procurement for the Gas-to-Shore project has already been started by the Government of Guyana. With a timetable to deliver rich gas by the end of 2024 and the Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) plant to be online by 2025, works are progressing on getting the project off the ground. During the first half of this year, Exxon was expected to source the materials and pipelines, so that they are available for when construction starts later this year.
The project, which will have a 25-year lifespan, is expected to employ up to 800 workers during the peak construction stage, some 40 full-time workers during the operational stage, and another 50 workers during the decommissioning stage.
The Gas-to-Shore project would include a power plant and an NGL plant, all of which would be constructed within the Wales Development Zone (WDZ). When it comes to the construction of a combined cycle power plant, this will generate up to 300 megawatts (MW) of power, with a net 250MW delivered into the Guyana Power and Light Grid at a sub-station located on the East Bank of Demerara.
The Guyana Government has already invited interested parties to make investments in the WDZ, which would be heavily industrialised, and for which approximately 150 acres of land have been allocated. Those lands were previously used by the Wales Sugar Estate.
Head of the Gas-to-Shore Task Force, Winston Brassington, had previously stated that ExxonMobil Guyana, which is funding the pipeline aspect of the project out of cost oil, has found that there would be substantial savings from combining these two facilities.
The scope of the approximately US$900 million Gas-to-Shore project also consists of the construction of 225 kilometres of pipeline from the Liza field in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, where Exxon and its partners are currently producing oil. It features approximately 220 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore that would run from Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to the shore. Upon landing on the West Coast Demerara shore, the pipeline would continue for approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
The pipeline would be 12 inches wide, and is expected to transport per day some 50 million standard cubic feet (mscfpd) of dry gas to the NGL plant, but it has the capacity to push as much as 120 mscfpd.
The pipeline’s route onshore would follow the same path as the fibre optic cables, and will terminate at Hermitage, part of the WDZ which will house the Gas-to-Shore project.
