New Stabroek Block oilfields bring greater risk of disease transmission — EIA Application

May 11, 2021 News

ExxonMobil believes a slight increased risk of communicable disease transmission could potentially result from project activities and influence community health and wellbeing.

Kaieteur News – The heightened activities in the Stabroek Block, with the development of up to four oil field developments in the country’s exclusive economic shelf, will also see increased human, marine and other types of traffic onshore and offshore. This could also potentially lead to an increase of communicable disease transmission, in addition to impacting emergency and health services in Guyana.
These, in addition to traditional environmental concerns associated with the offshore development of oilfields, were listed among the concerns expressed by ExxonMobil’s subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), as it seeks approval for the Yellowtail and Redtail developments.
The company, in its application to proceed with its developments, noted that most of the project’s activities will be located offshore in the project area and would have no direct impacts on communities in Guyana.
It noted however that the introduction of limited levels of foreign specialised labour, could potentially have community health and wellbeing impacts and that the development could potentially impact community health and wellbeing in the project, due to onshore traffic, social interaction, or as a result of non-routine, unplanned events such as a spill.
According to ExxonMobil, the increased demand for limited emergency and health services in Guyana, and “a slight increased risk of communicable disease transmission could potentially result from Project activities and influence community health and wellbeing.”
Flaring and Environmental Concerns
Additionally, ExxonMobil said that building on the previous Stabroek Projects, Yellowtail will be designed to demonstrate continuous improvement in environmental performance.
According to the Company, EEPGL routinely strives to make improvements in environmental performance through emissions controls, technology enhancements and process improvements.
As such, it was noted that in 2020, the Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel—Liza Destiny—experienced unanticipated technical challenges and unplanned gas flaring during its startup and commissioning process.
The company said, it has since conducted comprehensive root cause analyses of these issues, and evaluated potential improvements to gas handling systems, “sparing philosophy, and execution procedures.”
EEPGL said too, it “plans to take significant steps to incorporate the lessons learned from the commissioning of the Liza Destiny into future projects, including Yellowtail.”
According to EEPGL, it recognises and respects that the government and people of Guyana expect the company to operate in a manner that minimises environmental impacts to air, water and land, and protects the health of people and animals.
As such, “EEPGL continues to apply the learnings of Liza Phase 1 and has undertaken additional studies to obtain an even more comprehensive understanding of potential impacts of effluent discharges to water; the feasibility of alternative handling of produced water; and cradle to grave waste management in Guyana, including the application of certain international standards and best practices.”
The company said, to this end, “…additional studies are ongoing or planned with regard to flare minimisation, emergency response, and environmental compliance monitoring and verification.”
The company said, “the learnings from these and other environmental studies will inform the design and implementation of the Yellowtail Project, increasing environmental performance and economic value.”
As it relates to other potential environmental impacts, the company noted that air emissions resulting from the Project have the potential to affect ambient air quality in the Project area on a localised basis and to contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
It said, these impacts can be potentially had through emissions from construction equipment and back-up diesel fired power generation, emissions from operational point sources, non-routine, temporary flaring, pilot flare, plant emissions, fugitive emissions from construction or operations and non-routine, unplanned events such as an oil spill.
In the event of such issues arising, ExxonMobil said the likely impacts include “localised, increased concentrations of criteria pollutants in ambient air could contribute to health concerns in exposed humans and wildlife.”
This is in addition to the fact that combustion of hydrocarbons from project activities would contribute to GHG emissions.