The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) yesterday issued a helideck licence for the ExxonMobil Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel Liza Destiny, which arrived in Guyana last week.
Director General of the GCAA Lieutenant Colonel (ret’d) Egbert Field handed over the licence, the first to be issued, to Mathieu Guiraud, Country Manager of TLC Guyana Inc, during a simple presentation ceremony held yesterday morning in the GCAA’s boardroom.
During brief remarks, Field said the main purpose of the helideck is to accommodate helicopters flying from shore to the vessels at the production site.
“The helideck is very important since it’s the lifeline for not only passengers but goods and other pieces of expensive equipment which will be needed on the vessels and which will be carried by the helicopter,” Field said.
He explained that the helideck for Liza Destiny was inspected on August 16th in Singapore with the assistance of the Civil Aviation Authority of Ghana, since the GCAA did not have the fully capacity.
“That inspection was successful and as such we are presenting our first of I am sure many certificates,” Fields said.
Meanwhile, Guiraud said that with the authorisation of GCAA, Liza Destiny successfully arrived in Guyana. He was sure that there are other arrivals to follow. “We got all the authorisation starting with the GCAA authorities for the FPSO to arrive in Guyana and to be able to work in the Guyanese water. So it’s the first one but for sure not the last,” Guiraud said.
The licence, numbered 01-2019, cost $250,000 and is valid for a period of a year.
The Liza Destiny arrived in the Stabroek Block last Thursday.
ExxonMobil in a press release had said that the FPSO vessel travelled almost 11,000 nautical miles on a journey that lasted 42 days after a ceremony in June 2019 at which First Lady, Sandra Granger, christened the vessel.
The FPSO is a significant component of the Liza Phase 1 development. It has a production capacity 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, the release had added.
