‘Do not renew Liza 1 permit without fixing flaws’, get a better deal

May 26, 2022 News

– International experts call for fresh EIA, strengthened protections mechanisms

By Gary Eleazar

Kaieteur News – Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited’s (EEPGL)—Exxon Mobil Guyana—Environmental Permit for its Liza I operations, comes up for review next week and as such, stakeholders are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to not just act as a rubber stamp and renew the permit without major reforms to the deal between the partners involved.

International lawyer, Melinda Janki

The Liza I Oil field in the Stabroek Block first began pumping oil in December 2019 having found the hydrocarbons in commercial quantities in 2015. The field is being produced by a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Vessel—the Liza Destiny—with an installed capacity of 120,000 barrels per day.

Janki gave her views on Tuesday during a public discussion held online where she used the occasion to call on the EPA not to renew the permit unless there is major overhaul. Alternatively, “there should be a new EIA of the Liza I operations going forward; whether that will happen, I don’t know.”

According to Janki, her recommendation for a new EIA going forward is based in part on the fact that Guyana does have very strong laws in relation to EIA’s. She lamented however, “those laws are not being implemented or enforced.” With this in mind, she recalled as example, that under the first permit issued to EEPGL for the Liza I Field, the EIA submitted was dated June 1, 2017 and the permit for that operation was issued on the said June 1, 2017, “for an EIA that is about 1,500 pages.”

The Liza Destiny FPSO which is located at the Liza I field in the Stabroek Block

During the discussion Janki also, in a bid to explain her position further, pointed to impacts on the environment as a result of the ExxonMobil Guyana operations and said that at present, the vessel over the course of its life would have dumped one gallon of sewage for each barrel of oil produced from that 17 (producing/re-injection) well field. The International Lawyer told attendees at the specially organized webinar that, “the permit which expires on the 31st May which is next week does not protect Guyana; the so called protection that is in this permit is very weak and we are already seeing there is destruction of Guyana’s natural resource base as a result.”

She cited as example the fact that “fisheries have been disappearing, fishing catches have disappeared, (and) fishermen livelihoods are gone.” Janki also used the occasion to remind that EEPGL “is flaring billions of tons of Green House Gas (GHG) and that of course has an impact on the climate, it also has an impact on the migration of birds from north to south” and reminded that Guyana is on the flight path for migrant birds.

Additionally, the International Lawyer lamented, “there is a grave risk for a well blowout” and observed that the permit simply says that the company must install blowout preventers and quipped, “Obviously, they have to use one.” She noted however, that permit’s “provisions are very weak and Guyana has none whatsoever to deal with a well blowout.”

The lawyer was adamant that there is grave risk of a well blow out or an oil spill in the Stabroek Block “which could send oil into the Caribbean, devastating the Caribbean Sea as far as Jamaica leaving Guyana massive liability if this happens.” According to Janki, the Permit coupled with the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has provided for the company to dump some 4,000 barrels of sewage into the ocean every day.” This, she said, once taken cumulatively would mean “over the life of this project, that’s roughly a gallon of sewage for every barrel of oil that comes out of Liza I. A gallon of sewage for every barrel of oil and that to my mind just about sums up the deal that Exxon has with Guyana.”

Conceding, “I don’t exactly know what the EPA is proposing to do but I can tell you what should happen” when asked to speculate, Janki reminded that it has been five years now since the original permit was issued to develop the field “and in those five years, there have been massive changes.” To this end, Janki suggested that there should be no renewal of the Permit until EEPGL undertakes a new EIA before going ahead, taking into account new developments over the years.

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