OWING to a recent Order by the High Court, the environmental permits for ExxonMobil’s Liza Phases One and Two developments will come up for review in five years instead of the initially agreed 20+ years, but the measures to be included in a new permit would mirror the conditions outlined in the Payara licence.
This was affirmed by Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo, during a press briefing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, on Friday.

The Guyana Chronicle had reported recently that the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration had allowed the company’s Liza Phase One permit to be approved on the same day that the EPA received the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project.
In Guyana’s case, not a single study was done for the Liza Phase One, yet the APNU+AFC administration went full steam ahead with approving the permit for the project on the same day it received the EIA.

The order to have this decision reversed was issued in a case brought by Guyanese citizen, Dr. Troy Thomas, who filed an action on the grounds that the permit, initially valid for more than 20 years, was issued in clear violation of Guyana’s law, which expressly limits environmental permits to no more than five years.
The environmental permit for the Liza Phase One development, which was initially valid until 2040, will now expire on June 1, 2022. And, the environmental permit for Liza Phase Two will expire in 2024 instead of 2043.

Following initial hearings in the recent case, Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd (an ExxonMobil subsidiary) settled the matter by agreeing to limit the permit to five years, as provided by law.
While the government is pleased with the reduction in the timeframe for the permits, Vice-President Jagdeo assured that a new agreement would not be ‘loose,’ but rather mirror the conditions in the recently issued Payara development licence and environmental permit.

“When they [permits] expire, the conditions of the Payara permit would apply to the renewal of permits in the Liza projects…,” said the Vice-President.
In the licensing agreement for the US$9 billion Payara project, the government has insisted that routine flaring is strictly prohibited without the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

It is stated that flaring to maintain oil production will not be permitted. And, the company will pay the government for the cost of gas wasted during flaring and will also be subject to fines under the EPA related to emissions from flaring.
The fine will be calculated by applying the government’s profit gas and royalty percentage share for a given month to the flared volumes, multiplied by the lower of the following: Inside FERC Henry Hub Index price as published by Platts– a Crude Oil Marketwire– each month; or the sales price agreed for gas from the Stabroek Block.

New permits for the Liza developments would include this and other conditions determined by government and, by extension, the people of Guyana.
The Environmental Protection Act Cap 20:05 guarantees citizens’ rights to information and participation in the environmental impact assessments that are a pre-condition to environmental permits.