Exxon again at full speed with gas compressor replaced
Torch at Liza Destiny’s FPSO in the Stabroek Block.
Kaieteur News – Stabroek Block Operator ExxonMobil Guyana says it has completed the replacement of repaired and upgraded components of the repaired and upgraded flash gas compression system aboard Liza Destiny’s Ship, Production Storage and Unloading (FPSO) and is currently involved in “close monitoring of machine performance in (a) normal, stable operation. ”
This was, according to the US oil chief, in an update yesterday, in which he also noted that monitoring the restart operations at the FPSO represented the third and final phase of its testing program, after installing the repaired compressor.
The operator reported that pilot flares occurred during the tests and a large amount of process and mechanical data was collected.
It was also noted that, over the past few days, the team had successfully completed the first two steps, with a view to verifying the effectiveness of adjustments to the equipment logic and control system.
The resumption of operations for monitoring is taking place this week after the temporary removal of instrumentation, according to the big oil. The company has since committed to provide an additional update on operations, early next week.
The company at the end of last month had reported that its team of experts was making final preparations for starting this week’s flash gas compressor aboard the Liza Destiny.
Addressing the delay in replacing equipment to restore normal operations within the prescribed torching limits, ExxonMobil Guyana had informed this announcement that the offshore team had been “carefully reassembled and methodically the various components of the gas compression system, and are now conducting key instrumentation tests for a successful startup. ”
The company added that throughout that period, ExxonMobil “sought to strike a balance between maintaining production safely, while reducing torching.”
The company further added, “We have informed the relevant government agencies and other stakeholders of the progress of the repairs and replacement.”
Kaieteur News had calculated that the company, at 16 million cubic feet a day, had already flamed over 176 million cubic feet of natural gas eleven days after announcing it would blaze beyond pilot levels in January and that number continues to increase during that period. .
The faulty gas compressor that resulted in increased torching and release of pollutants into the atmosphere repaired the equipment with its German manufacturer, MAN Turbo. This followed an in-depth inspection by the technical experts at the MAN Energy Solutions workshop, ExxonMobil said in an operational update.
The Chief Operations Officer at Hess Corporation – ExxonMobil’s partner in the Stabroek Block – Gregory Hill during a Jan. 27 earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2020, said ExxonMobil would evaluate options to increase Liza Destiny’s operating name plate capacity, but had He said those options would be pursued in the third quarter of 2021, not the first.
It was only during a press conference on February 8 that the ExxonMobil had already been doing advanced production capacity tests and had been producing as high as 130,000 barrels a day in January.
ExxonMobil officials said the Liza Destiny is capable of producing as much as 158,000 barrels of oil a day.
The company reported last December that it had successfully commissioned the gas injection system, which was stable months after a malfunction.
That situation had resulted in the flaming of over a billion cubic feet of gas along with the release of toxic chemicals.
Only at the end of December 2019 was Exxon briefly scheduled to flame gas to fully test and commission the on-site gas compression and injection systems.
However, the company would fire up gas longer than expected, for more than a year in fact.
According to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) brief, ExxonMobil had said the third-stage flashlight gas compressor and suction silencer had been sent for repairs in Germany and were returned to Liza Destiny’s FPSO at the end of a month October, 2020.
The EPA had said the same was being reinstated and was expected to resume operation in mid-November.
Exxon, according to a November update, had expected the equipment to take a week to two weeks of testing to confirm that the repairs and modifications were working.
Notably, in late October, the company had flaunted more than 16 million cubic feet of natural gas, thus making Guyana one of the top five countries in the world for a year-on-year per capita flame.