Deadline pushed back to study water produced by Payara
By Kemol King
The Prosperity Boom hull (Photo: Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding)
Kaieteur News – Recent developments in the implementation of Payxon ExxonMobil’s production license show that the company has had more time to conduct a study and report to the Guyana government on the management of water generated from Payara well, scheduled for first oil in 2024.
The government had announced on September 30 last year that such a study would be needed, as the issue of dumping water generated into the ocean is being air-conditioned in the press.
In the petroleum industry, water produced is a by-product of oil extraction. Offers the oil and gas during the production phase of development. It tends to be high in salinity, rich in minerals, and very hot.
The effect of dumping the substance in Guyana’s oceans is unknown, and ExxonMobil is happy to do so in the absence of studies. However, due to ongoing criticism, the government has decided that such studies are needed, moving forward.
Recent inquiries from this newspaper with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicate that ExxonMobil’s local subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) is expected to complete the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the study by end of this month. EPA Director Sharifah Razack informed Kaieteur News on Tuesday morning that ExxonMobil submitted an initial TOR to the EPA on October 22, 2020. This is in accordance with Article t (ii) of the Payara production license that requires the company to issue the TOR within 30 days of the environmental permit, signed on September 24, 2020.
Razack said “The ToR was reviewed by the EPA which has since sent its comments to EEPGL for reference in a revised ToR; this will be submitted to the EPA by the end of January, 2021. ”
In its September 30, 2020 press release announcing approval of the $ 9 billion US Payara project, the Ministry of Natural Resources had said it would oversee the conduct of the study on water produced for completion by the first quarter .
“EEPGL will be conducting a study overseen by the Minister for Natural Resources,” reads an excerpt from the statement, “to be completed by the first quarter of 2021 to examine the replacement of safe and efficiently produced water, including the impacts on the reservoir. . This is in line with the government’s commitment to protect marine life and water quality. ”
This deadline would have actually been, had Tx ExxonMobil been approved by the end of October 2020, as Article t (ii) b. a production license gives the company 180 days to produce the final study report, with a draft final report due 30 days before the deadline.
As ExxonMobil’s TOR for the study is not completed three months after the initial deadline for submission to the EPA, the March first quarter deadline is extended to the third quarter of the year.
Kaieteur News notes that the findings of this study would not apply to Liza’s Phase One and Two projects, for which ExxonMobil was allowed to discharge up to 400,000 barrels of water produced.
Liza Phase One is already dumping thousands of barrels of toxic water in the ocean every day. Liza Phase Two is scheduled for first oil next year. The administration has not identified any plans to conduct studies to determine the best method of managing water produced in these two projects.