–company also commits to safe operations, respect for environment

US oil giant ExxonMobil is well prepared to respond within hours, should there be an oil spill here, says company country manager, Rod Henson.
Henson told the Department of Public Information (DPI) recently that his company is “absolutely prepared”, and sought the oppotunity to discredit what he considers to be “misinformation” about ExxonMobil’s preparedness to respond in the event of an oil spill.
“I know that there are some questions out there because there is some misinformation about readiness,” Henson said, adding:

“I heard the statement that ‘Because the chance of a spill is remote, ExxonMobil doesn’t see the need to be ready,’ and that is just utter nonsense.
“Our response is multi-tiered, and we have trained individuals and equipment on the drilling rig today; on the vessels that support the drilling rig today. And have had for years.
“And we’ll have equipment and trained people on the Liza Destiny when we start production in 2020, so we can respond in a matter of hours.”
Exxon and its partners are currently developing the Liza field, located in the Stabroek Block, for oil production by 2020.

Henson, noted, however that while the preservation of the environment is a “sensitive topic” for Guyana, his company is “putting in a tremendous amount of effort to ensure this (an oil spill) never happens.”
In addition to this, Henson said that the company has existing contracts with globally recognised experts that can respond quickly.

Exxon is also part of the National Oil Spill Committee working with the Guyana Civil Defence Commission (CDC) and other stakeholders to develop a new National Oil Spill Plan.
“When that new plan comes in place, we’ll bridge to that new plan to ensure that we work smoothly together,” Henson said.

Moreover, Exxon has been building the capacity of public government agencies, NGOs and the private sector which have benefited from training opportunities since 2015. In 2017, ExxonMobil facilitated two sets of oil spill response training, the most recent being University Spill Management.

“ExxonMobil is committed to operations that are safe and respect the environment,” Henson said.