The recently arrived Liza Unity oil production vessel will not get into full operation until late 2022 or early 2023, but when it does, ExxonMobil Guyana does not foresee some of the problems that have dogged Guyana’s other oil production vessel, the Liza Destiny.

A gas compressor issue on the Liza Destiny has resulted in that vessel being forced to flare natural gas above the recommended levels, angering environmentalists who have expressed their concern about the pollution.

During an interview on this morning’s Jumpstart programme on 94.1FM, ExxonMobil Guyana’s Production Manager Mike Ryan explained that the new FPSO has a different design and therefore the compressor issues being experienced by the Liza Destiny will not occur with the new vessel, Liza Unity.

“With Unity, we have been working hard over the years and taking those lessons learned and applying them and making sure we meet our expectations…It is a different kind of compressor design altogether; we have more capital sparing on board so I am confident that the team would go through this methodically to ensure that we meet our commitments and protect the environment and protect our people,” Mr. Ryan explained.

Earlier this year ExxonMobil increased its flaring level on the Liza Destiny offshore Guyana when a compressor got damaged.  Despite efforts to repair and replace the damaged compressor, the flaring problems persist and an entirely new system is now expected to be installed.

Exxon has set itself a year-end timeline to fix the issue.

“The Liza Destiny team has worked extremely hard. We are now injecting, compressing, and consuming over 96% of the gas that is being produced offshore Destiny. We have a new flash gas compressor that is due to arrive before year-end and installed and we’ll get to that background level of flare which is injecting and consuming well over 99% which is the design capacity”, Ryan said.

A few months ago, the company was forced to pay the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) $400M in flaring fees.

Those fees were paid as a result of an amendment to the Liza Phase One environmental permit, which saw an installed fee for increased flaring activity at the Liza Destiny operations.

The amendment was instituted in May and initially stipulated that the operator pay US$30 per tonne of carbon emitted.

Related posts:

Gas compression system on Liza Unity commissioned; Exxon promises reduced flaring Oil production ramped up as Liza Unity FPSO goes into operation Liza Unity FPSO sails into Guyana; Likely to go into full operation early next year Flaring reduced on Liza Destiny as repaired compressor is fully installed