By Lisa Hamilton

EXXONMOBIL is working to provide the Government of Guyana with all that is needed, so that the Payara Development Project can receive approval which would prevent further delay in the company’s goal to produce over 750,000 barrels per day offshore Guyana by 2026.

Initially, this goal was set to be achieved at 2025, but President of ExxonMobil Guyana Alistair Routledge said on Wednesday that plans have been shifted. The current hurdle is the Payara Development Project, currently under review by a team of international experts, headed by Canadian Queen’s Counsel Alison Redford.

A review of the project was previously conducted by the Bayphase Oil and Gas Consultants contracted by the Department of Energy (DE) under the previous administration, but the current government is conducting a new review to ensure transparency and accountability. The government’s plan is to see the project completed by the end of the month.

Routledge said that ExxonMobil has not been communicating directly with the team of experts, but with the government. He said that thus far, in the general sense, objectives align on matters such as the importance of protecting the environment, and ensuring that all Guyanese benefit from their resources. However, the oil and gas company is aware that the clock is ticking.

A CLOSE CALL

Routledge said that already, there has been some delay in the Payara Projec,t but meeting a September 2020 timeframe for approval could prevent future development projects from being delayed.

“If we can achieve the full funding, all the approvals necessary for Payara in the month of September, in the next few days, weeks, then we can keep those other projects on course. If we see a delay, unfortunately, it’s not just a day-to-day delay. If we delay beyond September, then it would be a multi-month, maybe nine to 12 months delay, because of the installation windows that we have offshore with weather systems,” the ExxonMobil Guyana President said.

Similar sentiments were shared in June by ExxonMobil’s Senior Vice-President Neil Chapman. Routledge noted, however, that on the government’s end, all efforts are being expended into seeing the project toward timely approval.

He acknowledged: “It’s very close to the deadline that we need to achieve in order to keep it on course, so we don’t lose traction and have to restart the clock from the point of view of the contractors and installation windows. But I think there’s a will on all sides to make that happen; we’re working through the final details in order to reach alignment on the conditions of the licence for the developer. I would say we are getting close; we haven’t dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ‘t’, but I think that both sides are working incredibly hard to reach that closure so that we can get there.”

Prior to present-day, Routledge said that ExxonMobil has been working on the project with the government for over a year, in close relations with the Department of Energy (DoE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

He said that many hours of work have gone into workshops, and putting together documents and studies, all with the aim of executing the best possible project, in keeping with the latest international standards.