The former Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Dr. Vincent Adams today stated that if he was still head of the regulatory body he would’ve halted ExxonMobil’s oil operations until the issue with the Liza Destiny oil platform flash gas compressor was solved.
“The permit is explicit in the law that the EPA has the authority to terminate operations at any time and that is what I would’ve done because we have been bending over for Exxon,” Adams stated in response to a question from Stabroek News during a press conference by the Alliance For Change (AFC) earlier today.
On January 29th, Exxon issued a brief statement announcing the gas compression problem, resulting in it having to temporarily increase flaring above pilot levels in order to maintain safe operations. It has since said that it has sent the faulty compressor for repairs in Germany.
President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge had recently disclosed that oil production has been pared to 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) – its previously stated maximum capacity – while gas flaring has increased to 16 million cubic feet per day. The company confirmed that at the time of the failure of its stage three Flash Gas Compressor (FGC) failing, the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel was producing 130,000 bpd.
Adams added that shutting down production is the only thing that can drive Exxon to swiftly move to have the issue with the flash gas compressor fixed once and for all and if this is done, he guarantees that the problem will be solved very quickly. Adams stated that the executives of ExxonMobil Guyana are only concerned about production goals and if those goals are not met, they can be fired so if they are forced to cease all operations, they would have no choice but to have the gas compressor fixed as soon as possible.
Further, Adams stated that shutting down operations would not be unreasonable on the part of the EPA because Exxon was given the entire 2020 to have all mechanical issues on the Liza Destiny FPSO repaired. He revealed that when Exxon first started their operations on the Liza Destiny, they said the wiring was wrong after which they said that there was an issue with the seal and then the valve.
He added that although they were given time to repair the gas compressor, it seems as though it was only fixed temporarily which is why more issues have now emerged.
“You cannot tell me that Exxon have many of these ships operating all over the world and they cannot fix a simple compressor seal…What the heck is going on? This is not a… cake shop operation. We expect much more of them,” he stated before adding that these issues are only occurring in Guyana because they are allowed to get away with it.
In terms of the penalty for breach of contract, Adams said that the highest fine is $1 million but repeated that production can and should be halted.
