EXXONMOBIL has announced that Guyana’s first Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel ‘Liza Destiny’ will arrive here soon.

Once here the preparation for producing, storing and offloading Guyana’s oil will commence. The oil giant made the announcement in an advertisement appearing in Sunday’s newspaper. According to the advertisement, the ship will sail nearly 11,000 nautical miles to the Stabroek Block where it will be connected to the spread mooring.
The vessel was commissioned in June by First Lady, Sandra Granger in Singapore. At a ceremony at the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore, the First Lady in her remarks recognised the importance of this project and industry to Guyana. “I think it is a fitting name (Liza Destiny) … because we are talking about destiny, we are talking about the long-term and we are talking about vision – not only the production but also the process and what comes behind it. It is my hope that this ship will bring to us the people of Guyana, not only physical prosperity, but greater cohesion, greater development and of course the sustainability of our country, and its people and culture,” the First Lady said.

According to the tradition and naming protocols, the dedication of the vessel is usually performed by a woman who is termed the “godmother of the vessel” to bestow good luck and divine protection over the ship and all who sail aboard. Also accompanying the First Lady was Director of the Department of Energy, Dr. Mark Bynoe. The Liza Destiny was expected to arrive in Guyana in September for the start of oil production for the Liza Phase 1 project in the Stabroek Block in early 2020.

The Liza Destiny FPSO was transformed from the oil tanker, “Tina”, a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. The contract for its conversion was awarded to SBM Offshore in July 2017. The Liza Destiny has a production capacity of up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day and an overall storage volume of 1.6 million barrels. During normal operations, there will be at least 80 persons living and working onboard the vessel. 24 Operations and Maintenance Technicians, who are currently being trained in Canada, will return in 2020 to support work on the Liza Destiny.

The vessel is designed to produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day and will have associated gas treatment capacity of approximately 170 million cubic feet per day and water injection capacity of around 200,000 barrels per day. The converted VLCC FPSO will be moored in water with a depth of 1,525 meters.