Production would have to be at “zero” to bring torch down to pilot levels – Exxon
By Shikema Dey
Torch in the Liza Destiny as captured in December
Kaieteur News – If ExxonMobil Guyana wants to reduce the 16 million cubic feet (mcdf) of natural gas that is flamed daily in the Liza Destiny ship down to pilot levels, the oil giant would be forced to his production manager, Mike Ryan, said:
ExxonMobil Guyana Production Manager Mike Ryan
Former Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Vincent Adams
Those comments came in direct response to allegations made by the former Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams. The passionate advocate for the environment said that the company is only giving the country excuses so it can continue its reckless endangerment of the environment. According to Dr. Adams, ExxonMobil can cut its production very well so that it can reduce its torch to the required pilot level of one million cubic feet of natural gas per day or less. He had also said that if this cannot happen, then the company should close its operations.
In particular, Dr. Adams calculated that the oil company would only need to produce 15,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), thus shifting it from 120,000 bpd to 105,000 bpd. Dr. Adams has assumed with his calculations that some components of the malfunctioning gas compressor system are still in place to allow the re-injection of approximately 95 million cubic feet of gas per day. Based on the gas to oil production ratio, calculations would show that reducing the production rate from just 15,000 bopd to 105,000 bopd would reduce the torching of 15 million cubic feet of gas per day, a million for pilot permitted torching .
But the issue is not as fixed, says ExxonMobil Production Manager.
Although he noted that the gas compressor system was somewhat “complex and technical,” he explained what the process involved.
Ryan explained that as the oil, water and gas surfaced, he first went to the high, medium and low pressure separator separator train. Once there, he said that high and medium pressure gas goes to the high and medium compressors where the majority of the gas is either compressed, re-injected or consumed.
But in terms of the low pressure flow, it can’t be compressed without the flash gas compressor “regardless of production,” he said.
“And so the comments to that effect of reducing the 15,000 are not accurate. I understand it’s a bit technical but in order for us to get back to fly pilot levels, we need that flash gas compressor or we need to reduce production to zero, ”the Production Manager explained“ and that’s the truth only. ”
What’s weird, according to Dr. Adams, when ExxonMobil first encountered problems with the gas compressor, had no qualms slash production. In fact, production was reduced to 30,000 bpd to allow repair of the right compressor.
But now, the company seems to be headstrong on its stance of not producing less, and the latest justification is that the country badly needs revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And yet the company agrees that temporary shutdown operations would be needed to get back to safe levels – call it out correctly – the Production Manager made it clear that ExxonMobil’s current focus is repair the gas compressor engine and back to Guyana.
IMPORTANCE OF MANY PILOT
With a pilot blazing at a million cubic feet of gas a day or less, ExxonMobil is able to maintain safe operations in the Liza Destiny Float Production Storage and Unloading (FPSO) ship. However, in this case, ExxonMobil had indicated that, with the gas compressor for the ship being repaired in Germany, as such, it was being forced to flame 16 million cubic feet of gas a day .