– EPA and GGMC join ongoing discussions, says Minister Bharrat

By Navendra Seoraj
GLOBAL oil giants, ExxonMobil, will have to be granted an environmental permit before the company’s Field Development Plan (FDP), for its Payara project, gets the “green light” from local authorities.
This was according to Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, in an invited comment to the Guyana Chronicle on Saturday.
The Payara Project, located in the eastern half of the Stabroek Block, is expected to see the drilling of up to 45 development wells which could take up to five years, with drilling initially pegged to begin in 2020 and initial production by early 2023.
The project marks EEPGL’s third field development in the Stabroek block and targets 180,000 to 220,000 barrels of oil per day, with anticipation to produce approximately 5,700,000 to 6,600,000 barrels of crude oil per month.
A review of the Payara Development Project was previously conducted by the Bayphase Oil and Gas Consultants contracted by the Department of Energy (DoE) under the previous administration.
Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, was initially seeking approval for the Payara Development Project Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and FDP, ahead of 2020.
The new People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration, however, decided to review the work already undertaken by the DoE to ensure that the interests of all Guyanese are protected and are in keeping with international transparency and accountability standards.

The current review is being done by a team of international experts headed by Canadian Queen’s Counsel, Alison Redford.
Minister Bharrat had told this publication that a team of legal and technical experts from the DoE and a team from ExxonMobil are discussing the draft licence for the Payara project.

And, as negotiations between local authorities and ExxonMobil deepen, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is the agency responsible for granting the environmental permit, and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) have joined the panel on the government’s side.

‘YES’
When asked about the latest addition to the panel, Minister Bharrat said: “Yes, the EPA has to issue an environmental permit before the agreement is signed between the government and ExxonMobil.”

One of the known environmental issues attributed to ExxonMobil is its offshore flaring, something which local authorities strongly condemned. ExxonMobil’s responsibility to the environment took the forefront in Guyana when the Company encountered issues with its gas compressor after it increased production in mid-May.

Key specialist technicians were required to repair the units but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, repairs were initially delayed. It caused concern amongst Guyanese who received reports that ExxonMobil resorted to flaring billions of cubic feet of natural gas due to the challenges. This and other issues are expected to be addressed as the negotiations progress.
It was recently reported that the ongoing negotiations, while important to the country’s development as an oil nation, do not determine the government’s position or opportunities in the oil and gas sector, said Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo.
As it is now, there are issues related to the Payara project that the government and ExxonMobil do not see eye-to-eye on, but Jagdeo said active negotiations are still ongoing .

“We see this as a continuum… Exxon (Mobil) will not disappear tomorrow, and the Payara licence is not the only opportunity to get what the President (Dr. Irfaan Ali) said and what the PPP/C campaigned on, and that is, an industry that benefits the investor, but significantly benefits the people of Guyana, through jobs, business opportunities and so on,” said the vice-president.
President Irfaan Ali had said government wants to strike a balance by ensuring the country gets more for local content, brings natural gas to shore and ensure the lives of all Guyanese are improved significantly.

ExxonMobil is now firmly established in Guyana, operating an office in Georgetown with numerous ongoing exploration and development operations offshore. ExxonMobil Guyana has made 18 discoveries since May 2015 and began production in December 2019 from the Liza Phase one development project.

The company is the operator of the Stabroek, Canje and Kaieteur Blocks offshore Guyana. Since 2015, ExxonMobil has increased its estimated recoverable resource base in Guyana to more than eight billion oil-equivalent barrels.