IN what is being described as a leading industry standard, The Liza Destiny Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel offshore Guyana has gone 1,000 days without a recordable injury.

The achievement represents a high level of safety on the vessel, with safety being highly regarded in the oil and gas sector.

This achievement was recently commended by ExxonMobil Guyana’s Production Manager Mike Ryan during a recent press conference held at the company’s office earlier this week.

“The operations on Destiny has [sic] been going smoothly; a very safe operation.

“We’ve gone over 1,000 days now without a recordable injury which is really world class for us and we should be very proud of all the Guyanese working and supporting the Liza Destiny FPSO,” Ryan said.

By Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) standards, employers are required to keep a record of serious work-related injuries and illnesses.

Recordable injuries amount to any that results in death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness.

Safety in the oil and gas industry is of utmost importance due to the high risk of hazards.

“In industries around the world you want to have a common basis for how you measure safety.

“We use the term ‘total recordable injuries’ and that, by simple terms, is anything more than first aid… We’ve gone over a thousand days without one of those events.

“[And] we’ve gone over 200 days without a single hurt, not even first aid. That is world class performance. That, I know, the team on Destiny is extremely proud of,” Ryan added.

The Liza Destiny is currently operating at the Liza Phase One project in the offshore Stabroek Block, which is currently producing 140,000 barrels of oil per day.

The Liza Phase One development is approximately 190 kilometres offshore in water depths of 1,500– 1,900 meters. There are four drill centres with 17 wells in total; eight oil producing wells, six water injection wells, and three gas reinjection wells.

The Liza Destiny is the first FPSO to operate in Guyana, arriving in August 2019, and beginning operations with first oil in December 2019.

Ryan said the safety record of the Liza Destiny is setting the foundation for what the company wants excellence to look like. He added that the company will continue to leverage on the lessons learnt from the Destiny as more FPSOs come on stream.

The Liza Destiny is one of two FPSOs currently operating offshore, with the other being the Liza Unity.

The Liza Unity is currently operating at the Liza Phase Two project, which began production in February 2022 and is currently producing 220,000 barrels of oil per day.

“We took a lot of learnings that we had from Destiny, both from a safety perspective but also from a start of perspective and apply it to Unity.

“We continue to build on Liza Destiny and the Liza Unity and get ready to prepare for our third FPSO, the Prosperity, that will arrive in 2023. It’s a great foundation,” Ryan said.

Aside from the Liza Phases One and Two, the Payara and Yellowtail projects are also being developed in the Stabroek Block, and are expected to come on stream in 2023 and 2025, respectively.

A third FPSO, the Prosperity, will be used for the Payara development which will target 220,000 barrels of oil per day, while a fourth FPSO, the OneGuyana, will be used at the Yellowtail development, which is expected to produce 250,000 barrels per day, the largest project to date.