Executive Member of the Alliance For Change and Former Head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams, has accused the Guyana Government of being complicit and encouraging unlimited flaring of Natural gas by ExxonMobil offshore Guyana.
He said he is concerned that the continuous flaring could have devastating environmental impacts.
During an AFC Press Conference today, Dr. Adams responded to statements made By Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo last week.
At the time, the Vice President said that the Government has put measures in place, which will see a reduction in flaring and a fee being paid to the EPA whenever the company has to flare.
But Mr. Adams said the initial agreement signed by the coalition, prohibited flaring, and even in the early days of the PPP government the no-flaring policy was observed.
According to Mr. Adams, flaring at Liza 1 could have been stopped with cutting production by 7-15% or about 7,000 to 15,000 barrels of oil per day. This is based on the 7 to 15 million cubic feet of gas that was reported as being flared per day.
“They decided to go ahead and change that permit to give Exxon sixty days of flaring and even when you exceed that sixty days then you start paying this paltry fee. All you have to do to cut flaring is to cut back on your production by a certain level because every barrel of oil brings up a certain amount of flare,” Dr. Adams explained.
Last year, ExxonMobil indicated that it has paid over US$10 million to the EPA as a fee for flaring of climate harming gases.
“The Government has removed that restriction where we said that there shall be no flaring so now basically what the permit has in them is that ExxonMobil can flare unlimited quantities as long as you can pay for it”, Adams said.
In May 2021, the EPA disclosed that the Environmental Permit for the Liza Phase 1 Development Project offshore Guyana had been modified and ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, EEPGL would now be required to pay for gas flaring once it continues beyond a 14-day period.
While the permit initially said that Exxon will be paying a fine for flaring, the payment is now described as a fee.
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